The New Rebels
by Tellemicus Sundance
Summary: It was all Dudley's fault. That's the only reason they are stuck in this situation now. Rather than panic and flee from what was clearly magical, he decided to do the responsible thing and bring it to Harry for safekeeping. Now they're stuck in a war against an empire that they thought was just a work of fiction. They MUST return home, quickly. But will they want to? DISCONTINUED
1. Rebellious from the Start

**The New Rebels  
** By: Tellemicus Sundance  
 _#01: Rebellious from the Start_

 **Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey  
July 4, 2015 (Earth time)**

Harry Potter was having a very bad summer. Well, that wasn't to say that he was being bullied, abused, or otherwise tormented but he was stuck back with his relatives in the Muggle World once again. They were a horrid bunch, willfully and pridefully ignorant and self-righteous. And though he was bound by Wizarding law to never use magic in front of Muggles, his aunt and uncle drew immense pleasure in reminding and tormenting him on that fact whenever they could.

But that by itself isn't why he was having such a bad time. He had grown accustomed to this type of behavior from them over the past few years. No, what was really getting to Harry was the simple fact that he knew of nothing that was happening in the Wizarding World since his departure from Hogwarts. He had tried to get a subscription of the Wizarding newspaper, but his relatives often chased away the delivery owls and burned the papers whenever they found them. Of the times that he managed to get the paper himself, he didn't find any evidence that drew his attention. There were no mentions of Death Eaters, no attacks in either the Muggle or Wizarding Worlds, no mysterious disappearances. There was nothing. It was as though the Wizarding World was carrying on, happily and willfully forgetting or ignoring the simple fact that the most powerful Dark Lord recent times had come back to life. It was a horrible, knowing that the dark lord and his lunatics were out there and being unable to find any type of evidence that hinted towards it.

Frustrated and unwilling to stay in the house, the 14-year-old wizard headed outside and started taking a brief walk around the neighborhood. Not too far from the house, but enough to get some breathing room. He ended up in one of the local parks that he didn't know the name of, idly swaying on the swing. The summer was rather hot this year with some pretty heavy humidity, making it seem wetter than it was. Hands in his pocket, Harry was sorely tempted to use his magic wand that was hidden in his pocket to cast a small cooling charm on himself. It was so tempting, but he restrained himself.

Looking about, Harry caught a glimpse of numerous people walking about, minding their own business as they went about their lives. ' _You guys have no idea how_ _ **lucky**_ _you are_ ,' he thought morosely. ' _No idea of how much danger has come back into the world and how likely it is that he'll send his followers to kill and curse you just because you don't have magic. I guess ignorance truly is bliss._ '

Glancing up at the sky and seeing the sun making its descent towards the horizon, Harry let out a heavy sigh as he pushed himself to his feet. The walk back to that prison he called a home was spent in equally sullen and dark thoughts, feeling his spirit darken as he drew closer. Entering through the front door, since that granted him a quick and hopefully unimpeded route straight to his room, Harry quickly took off his shoes and tried to quickly and quietly rush upstairs.

"Where have you been, boy?!" Uncle Vernon called from where he was seated in his usual recliner in the living room, watching the news. Though how he noticed Harry's presence was unknown to the boy.

"Out…for a walk," Harry answered, midway up the stairs. "I'm going to my room now. I'll be quiet."

"You better be! I don't wanna hear another peep from you for the rest of the night!" Uncle Vernon snapped.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon," Harry sighed out, more out of obligation than anything. He knew the rules of the house (in regards to himself at least) quite well after all. Climbing the rest of the stairs quickly, in an attempt to escape before either his aunt or uncle could bother him further, Harry headed for his own room.

"Oi, Potter!" a voice called from his cousin's room. "Come here for a second!"

Sighing heavily, Harry stopped and stepped into his cousin's room, not stepping past the threshold. Inside, he found his heavy-weight blonde cousin seated at his desk, his new computer up and showing what looked like some kind of cartoon on the monitor. Glancing around the room, Harry found himself stopping and blinking in some surprise. Dudley was in many ways a perfect product of his doting parents and their beliefs. He was raised to believe that he was an overly talented and special child, able to do no wrong. And why shouldn't he be? He was a perfectly normal boy, no unnatural freaky magic about him. He would grow into a strong and brilliant young man, get a job as a doctor or manager of some important business, get married and raise a family of his own. A completely normal life that any parent would hope for their child. But they had also raised him to hate and fear magic, which admittedly made some sense to Harry nowadays. They taught him that magic was a terrifying thing and that those who used it were demonic beings or devil-worshipers or something of the sort.

But what he found decorating his cousin's room now strongly conflicted with everything Harry knew about Dudley. There were posters, toys, videos, games, and even books (that part _really_ threw Harry off since he knew his cousin _**hated**_ reading _anything_!) that lined his room. And all of them were centered around the same theme: Star Wars. While Harry may not have been as exposed to the rest of the world as most other teenagers his age, even he knew what Star Wars was. And what especially caught him off guard was that he knew for a fact that magic existed within the franchise. Sure, it may have been disguised with a different type of name, but the fundamental principles remained the same (as far as Harry was concerned). And that is what had thrown Harry off-kilter right now. Why would his cousin, who was raised to despise magic, sudden become an apparent fanatic of Star Wars with its 'space magic'?

"I didn't know you were into Star Wars," Harry said lamely, still somewhat dumbfounded by this discovery, as he continued looking around the room.

"Hey, haven't you seen some of the stuff they're coming up with nowadays?!" Dudley asked, spinning around in his chair as he pulled his headphones down around his neck, to better hear his cousin. "Sure, some of it is not as good as the old stuff, but it's got potential to be great!"

"I…see," Harry said, his gaze focusing momentarily upon what his cousin was watching. Now that he was paying closer attention, he could see that it was apparently a Star Wars cartoon. He could tell because he recognized the H-shaped pods of those flying craft that those black-helmeted guys just landed on the ground. Shaking his head to clear it and refocus his attention on Dudley, he said, "So, what is you wanted, Dudley?"

Things hadn't been all that great between the cousins this summer. That was mostly because, early on, Harry had discovered that Dudley had recently gotten involved in narcotics with his 'little friends' as Aunt Petunia called them. Dudley even went as far as to steal money from his parents so he could buy the stuff, and then try to blame the theft on Harry when/if it was discovered. Thankfully, that potential conflict had been somewhat averted when Harry bluffed Dudley into thinking he was now old enough to be considered 'responsible' with his magic and thus able to use it during the summer when 'in private'. Now, Dudley mostly kept to himself and tried not to involve Harry…unless his friends were somehow involved, then all deals were off.

Standing up from his chair, Dudley pulled off his headphones and pulled out something from his pocket. "I found this when I was visiting the theater earlier today. It looked…freaky, so I figured I'd better bring it to you."

Holding out his hand, Dudley offered to Harry what looked like a golden movie theater ticket. It was so golden that even in the dying evening light, it seemed to gleam with an unnatural yellow hue. Humming thoughtfully, Harry reached forward and carefully took the offered ticket from his cousin, turning and flipping it, examining it to the best of his ability.

"Curious," he murmured, feeling a very, very slight tingling of magic skirt across his fingers as he handled the ticket. "You're right, Dudley. This _is_ magical. I can feel it."

"What does it do, Potter?" Dudley asked, backing away reflexively now that it had been confirmed to be magical.

"I…I don't know," Harry admitted. His curiosity getting the better of him, he reached into his pocket and withdrew his wand. Ignoring Dudley's gasp of fright at seeing the hated and feared magical tool, Harry brought his wand up to the ticket and gently started poking and prodding it. As he did, little sparks of golden magic blinked off the corners of the ticket. Because he was holding it, Harry could feel it as that faint tingling sensation of magic within the ticket began to grow stronger the longer it remained in contact with his wand. "Curious."

"Wh-What are you d-doing?!" Dudley asked, trying and failing to put up a strong front.

"Trying to determine what kind of Charms or Curses this thing has on it," Harry admitted. ' _I wish I could use a diagnostic spell to see what they are, but the risk isn't worth it_.' "Maybe I can…" Harry muttered as he channeled a bit more power through his wand and into the ticket.

It happened in a flash. _Literally_.

One second, Harry and Dudley were standing in Dudley's room with Harry prodding a golden ticket with his wand. The next second, a blinding golden void suddenly filled the air around the cousins, originating from the ticket. It was so bright that Harry could see absolutely nothing else but the light, not even his arms when he reflexively brought them up to his face to shield his eyes. All noise and sound disappeared, transitioning into a silent, even deafening, silence as the light swept up around him and Dudley. Then, fittingly, like a light bulb going out, the golden void rapidly vanished and the noise of the world around them returned.

"Wha-What happened?!" Dudley cried out in surprise, jolting backwards and collapsing onto his rump, rubbing his eyes to try and clear them of the spots that still plagued his vision.

"I don't know!" Harry admitted, also trying to rub his own eyes clear. "That wasn't supposed to happ—What's that music? What's that noise? Do you hear that, Dudley?"

Dudley stilled momentarily, stretching his hearing as his eyesight slowly began to clear. "Yeah, I do. Sounds like a…parade?"

"You sure?" Harry asked, confused as his sight was beginning to return as well. "Doesn't sound like any type of parade I've ever heard of before."

Finally blinking away the last of the spots, he looked around and blinked again. "Wait a minute, this isn't right. Where are we?!"

Feeling a strange warmth in his fingers, he looked down and watched in muted horror and incomprehension as the ticket he held rapidly disintegrated into golden sparkles that quickly faded. He quiet muttered, "That can't be good…"

"I…don't know…" Dudley answered slowly, fear and uncertainty rising in his voice. "But I…I swear I've heard this music before!"

The pair of them had somehow been transported _elsewhere_ , that much was immediately obvious. They were standing in an alley of some kind. The buildings looked different from any they'd seen before, reaching at least three or four stories tall. The skies above were completely dark, not the slight orange, red, purple, and blues of evening that had been present outside their windows seconds ago. One side of the alley was empty as it led off into another street of the place they were in. The other end of the alley, and the one they were closest to, had a line of people stretching across it as they watched a line of traffic pass by. Then, before Harry's eyes, he watched as what was clearly a type of two-legged armored vehicle of some sort went strutting past the alley, loud clanking and thunking sounds accompanying each step it awkwardly took.

"What the bloody hell?" Harry stuttered out, confused as he stared up in incomprehension as the vehicle disappeared around the corner. Dudley gasped deeply and loudly as he too watched the thing strut away.

"No way…" Dudley gasped out, eyes wide and staring. As Harry glanced over at his cousin, he had just enough time to see a look of dawning realization and a smile spreading across his face. "No way!"

"What is—Hey! Wait!" Harry called out, reaching to try and catch Dudley, who suddenly ran forward for the alley end. Groaning out loudly, Harry ran after his cousin, pocketing his wand as he went. Catching up to his fat cousin just he was reaching the end of the alley, Harry grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to a stop. "Don't just go running off like that! It might be dangerous!"

"Shut up, Harry!" Dudley snapped, now grinning quite broadly as he continued pushing his way forward until he reached the front of the crowd. Gasping out again, he stuttered, "I-I knew it! I knew it! Bloody hell, this is awesome!"

"What is so great, Dudley?" Harry demanded as he came up behind him, following in his cousin's considerable wake and making quick apologies to everyone he passed for his cousin's rudeness. As he too reached the front, Harry came to swift stop as he took in the sight before him.

It must be said that it was a rather grand sight to behold for someone who had never seen such things before. Both sides of a rather large avenue were lined with crowds of people, all cheering and celebrating. A loud instrumental music, which did sound very familiar, was blaring from a series of speakers. A convoy of those weird walker vehicles and what looked like hovering boxy tanks to Harry were traveling down the center of the road in a rigid and uniform line. Displayed proudly on large television monitors and large red clothe banners was a symbol that looked like a black and white flower of some type.

"What's going on?" Harry couldn't help asking. "Where are we?"

"You mean you really can't tell, Harry?!" Dudley demanded, spinning to look at his cousin with a gawk of disbelief. "None of this looks familiar to you?!"

"Obviously not, Dudley!" Harry snapped, glaring at his cousin.

At the far side of the street where all of the vehicles were heading towards, a woman dressed in a blue dress and wearing some type of large metallic hat or crest began speaking, her voice echoing through the area from the loudspeakers, "CITIZENS, I AM MINISTER MAKETH TUA. GOVERNOR PRYCE SENDS HER REGRETS, BUT SHE WAS INVITED TO CORUSCANT TO CELEBRATE WITH EMPEROR PALPATINE HIMSELF!"

Dudley ignored the woman as she continued making her speech to the masses. Instead, he just stared at Harry in open disbelief. But then he seemed to collect himself and looked around quickly. Finding what he was looking for easily enough, he grabbed Harry by his shoulder and spun him around, facing him off towards what he'd seen. For several long moments, Harry just stared out at the masses, not truly seeing just what his cousin wanted him to. That is, until he caught a glimpse of a man in white armor, many men actually. There must've easily been several hundred of them lining and mingling with the crowd. But what truly caught Harry's attention was the strikingly familiar white and bulbous helmets they all wore.

"St-Stormtroopers?" Harry stuttered, not truly believing what he was seeing. "But aren't they…?"

"You're really slow right now, Harry," Dudley grinned at him. "The magic ticket must've brought us into Star Wars!"

"But…But that's…" Harry literally couldn't find the words he was looking for as the ramifications of what he just realized started seeping in. "Even with magic…that's impossible!"

"Then how do you explain them?" Dudley asked, gesturing slightly to the side towards the people that were standing around them.

Looking around, Harry realized that the crowd they were standing in wasn't filled with just people. There were many different types of creatures spread throughout the crowd. And while nearly all of them were wearing clothing that closely resembled humans, their body features and appearances made it pretty obvious they were anything but. And while Harry was certainly no racist like many in the Wizarding World, a deep well of fear suddenly flooded inside him as he started looking around wildly at all of the creatures.

A sudden burst of dazzling fireworks and explosions lit up the night sky above them, momentarily spooking Harry into grabbing his wand. Thankfully, his self-restraint prevented him from casting any spells in the crowd. Nonetheless, the reassuring feeling of the familiar smooth wood in his palm quickly helped calm him down, if only slightly.

"That's right!" Dudley gasped out, staring up into the sky at the display as well. "If we're where I think we are, then that means—" A second burst of fireworks lit up the sky. "The rebels are about to att—"

A third burst of fireworks lit up the night…from under one of the wings of a TIE fighter that was on display. The force of the blast launched the relatively light-weight starfighter careening haphazardly into the air, destroying its wing and mutilating the cockpit pod. The blast also knocked the group of government and military officials closest to it off their feet. Immediately, the surrounding crowd panicked and ran. The stormtroopers rushed forward, trying to regain control of the situation and keep everyone in line. But it was a futile effort as they were outnumbered several dozen to one.

"Come on, Harry!" Dudley yelled over the crowd, grabbing Harry's arm and pulling him off to the side and back down the alley. Seeing no better option, Harry let himself be pulled along for a bit.

As they ran through the alley, across another street, and into a second alley, Harry finally had enough. He pulled up short and crouched behind a couple of crates, heaving for a breath. Dudley didn't argue, also breathing very heavily since he wasn't used to running so much. Turning to his cousin, Harry snapped out, "What was that?! You knew what was going to happen! What's going on here?!"

Despite himself, Dudley couldn't stop himself from grinning up at Harry. "Honestly, why are you asking _me?_ I don't know how we got here! _You're_ the wizard, remember?"

"…Fine, but you still didn't answer my question!" Harry snapped back. "How did you know what was going to happen?!"

"Remember what I was watching on my computer before all this?" Dudley asked.

"Not really," Harry admitted, frowning as he tried to remember. "I remember seeing some of those TIE fighters landing and what looked like some type of bar or restaurant with an alien bartender. But I wasn't really… _That's where you think we are?!_ " Harry cried out, as the pieces suddenly snapped together with crystal clarity.

"Maybe, maybe not," Dudley admitted, still wearing that same grin he had been since they arrived. "Maybe the tickets took us to a dimension that's similar to it? I don't think we're actually in the show, though. That'd be just weird...and scary."

"You're taking this rather well," Harry remarked, shaking his head to try and clear it and think calmly again.

" _Of course I am!_ " Dudley declared loudly and proudly. " _ **WE'RE IN STAR WARS!**_ Do you have _any idea_ how many geeks, nerds, and fans would _kill_ to get this opportunity?! _**I LOVE IT!**_ "

Despite the situation, Harry found himself grinning along with his cousin, encouraged by his enthusiasm.

"Over here!" a filtered voice called out, causing both boys to turn towards where it came from. Two stormtroopers entered the alley and spotted the resting duo, quickly turning their weapons upon them. "Halt! Hands in the air!"

"Not good," Dudley muttered, glaring over at the approaching troopers before turning his attention to Harry. "Harry? A little _help,_ please?"

"What?!" Harry snapped. "Are you _crazy?!_ Even if we're here, I can't just—!"

"Hands up!" the lead trooper snapped, both he and his partner raising their blasters threateningly. "Now!"

It was more the tone of the Imperial that changed Harry's mind than anything else. That sense of superiority. As though, because he wore the armor, he was automatically three steps higher and greater than the boys, no matter who or what they were. Drawing out his wand as he turned to face the trooper, Harry glared at the man as he said, "How about…NO!"

A bolt of red light erupted from Harry's wand heading straight for the trooper, who'd frozen in surprise at the unexpectedly fast retaliatory strike. Impossibly, when the bolt struck the man dead on in his armored chest, the spell ricocheted off to the side and dissipated as it hit the wall of the alley. Despite the reflected shot, the impact of the attack still hit the man with the force of a hammer blow and knocked him backwards off his feet. His partner took one quick glance down at him before immediately turning back and opening fire.

Harry stared in dumbfounded shock. The armor had reflected his stupefy spell! How was that possible?! He was so shocked and distraught over this that he failed to notice that the second trooper was attacking. Thankfully, Dudley wasn't crippled into inaction and, seeing Harry freeze, quickly knocked him aside and off his feet. Harry fell to the ground with just barely enough time to miss the blaster bolts heading his way. The jolt and the passing heat of the missed bolts quickly brought Harry back to his senses, allowing him to roll and spin back to his feet, conjuring a translucent shield around himself as he did. The trooper continued to fire into the shield relentlessly, causing Harry to gasp and strain as he fought to keep his shield active through the barrage.

Acting on impulse, Dudley charged forward from the side and slammed all of his considerable weight into the trooper. The man was so focused on trying to bypass Harry's shield that he was utterly blindsided by Dudley. Grabbing the man around his waist, Dudley hoisted him up and continued to run towards the nearest surface he could reach, which happened to be the crates they were near. Slamming the man's back into them, Dudley let out a cry as he lifted and pummeled the man multiple times against the crate before spinning and throwing the man's pained form to the side.

"Not bad, Dudley," Harry couldn't help admitting, for once glad that his cousin was a rather skilled brawler and boxer.

"Thanks- _ssss!_ " Dudley hissed as a wave of blue electrical energy suddenly washed over him, sending him to the ground in agony.

Spinning around, Harry had just enough time to realize that the first trooper had recovered. But then a black and white armored fist slammed into his face, shattering his glasses and causing stars to explode behind his eyes. Harry was only vaguely aware of a wooden crunching noise happening as he tilted and collapsed inelegantly to his side, his hand striking the wall at an awkward angle. As the stars cleared from his eyes, he glimpsed a very familiar wand laying on the ground just in front of him, snapped cleanly in two and only held together the feather that was contained within.

Before Harry could gasp or cry out in horror, a stun bolt struck Harry's back full on and his world faded into electrical pain and darkness.

* * *

 **Capital City  
Imperial Compound, Detention Cells  
2 hours later…**

"Well, this is a fine mess you've gotten us into," Harry grumbled.

"And how is this _my_ fault?" Dudley asked, glaring halfheartedly over at the wizard.

"You're the one that didn't do the 'sensible thing' by getting rid of that ticket as quickly as you could," Harry remarked, meeting Dudley's glare with equal force. "Isn't that what your dearly beloved parents would've wanted you to do? Isn't that what they raised you to do?"

"Yeah, maybe they did," Dudley admitted, surprising Harry. "And you're right, maybe I _should've_ gotten rid of it. Let's just call it a 'lapse of judgment' on my part."

"Oh, there's _no way_ I'm calling it _that_ ," Harry said. "And there's _no way_ you're living this _down_. I will _guarantee_ that!"

Before Dudley could make a reply, the door to the cell they were in suddenly slid up into the ceiling. A tall, strongly-built man with massive sideburns and a beard, dressed in an armored uniform, stood at the entrance. With his hands calmly set behind his back, the man descended the steps, glancing at the two boys with a look of total confidence and superiority on his face. "I am Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau. And you two are…?"

"Boba Fett," Dudley said sneering up at the man he easily recognized. He ignored Harry and Kallus's pointed glances at the blatant lie as he gestured towards the dark-haired wizard. "This is my cousin, Anakin Skywalker."

"Why are you guys even holding us prisoner?" Harry asked, trying to keep things calm and orderly. "We haven't done anything wrong."

Kallus couldn't help raising his brow when he saw just how heavily the boy was squinting. Clearly, he suffered from poor eyesight, which was something of a novelty in a galaxy that had such incredible medical care. What was more curious was the fact that the boy or his parents hadn't gotten his sight improved yet. ' _Something to make a note of for later examination.'_

"If that were the case, then you would've had no reason to attack and seriously wound two stormtroopers," Kallus countered. "So, why don't you tell me just what you were doing and we can skip all the unpleasantness."

"It's like he said," Dudley said. "We were just watching the parade, ran when the celebrations went up in flames, then two troopers ran up and tried to arrest us."

"We weren't doing anything wrong!" Harry reiterated.

"You know, I might have been inclined to believe you," Kallus stated, glancing between both boys, analyzing their expressions closely. As far as he could tell, aside from the obese boy's lie about their identities, they had been utterly truthful. But… "However, we've run your images through the Imperial records. Imagine my surprise when we were unable to find anything on a pair of boys that match your profiles."

"You do know that there are a _lot_ of worlds that _still aren't_ connected to the Imperial network, right," 'Boba' pointed out, rolling his eyes. 'Anakin' glanced at him again with a raised brow.

It was byplay that Kallus saw and quickly realized that the fat boy was the ringleader, for the moment at least. Anakin gave off the vibe that he was unhappy about being stuck in this situation with his cousin. If their family dynamic was anything like most families in the Coreworlds, they probably didn't get along very well. Kallus was inclined to believe that they were indeed from the Coreworlds, specifically from Coruscant, based on their unique dialect of Basic.

"That is an excuse, we all know it," Kallus stated. "Do you know what happens when we capture unidentifiable citizens who are guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest, use of an unregistered firearm, probable interference of Imperial records, and lying to an ISB agent?" Both boys glanced at one another for a moment before returning back to staring at Kallus, identical frowns on their faces as their faces hardened in defiance. "Soon, you will be transferred to a secure facility where you will undergo quite the…ordeal. You _will_ break. You _will_ inform the Empire of everything we wish to know. Then, we will decide what to do with you."

"You think we're rebels?" Though it was phrased as a question, it was quite obviously a statement. Dudley's eyes were narrowed as he clearly tried to figure out what Kallus's game plan was. "You think we're trying to join up with the rebels here on Lothal, don't you? Then that also means that you want to use us as _bait_ for a trap. And, even if by some chance they _don't_ come to rescue us, we will _still_ be transferred as you just said we will be."

Despite himself, Kallus found himself rather surprised. The obese boy was clearly quite a bit more intelligent than his brutish appearance suggested. He had figured out almost exactly what Kallus intended to do. To make matters even more interesting, this was something that wasn't a common occurrence. He could tell that much just based on the surprised expression from the dark-haired boy. Kallus guessed that, of the two, the dark-haired boy was generally the more intelligent and respectful one, yet the obese boy's knowledge and astuteness were not qualities that his cousin had known he even possessed.

"Let me poke a hole in this grand plan of yours, Agent Kallus," Boba continued on fearlessly. "They don't know about us. They don't even know we exist, honestly. They won't come rescue a pair of nobodies who have nothing to offer their cause."

"Perhaps," Kallus said, nodding in agreement to the boy's point. "But that doesn't mean this trap is designed exclusively for _these_ rebels." Turning around, he ascended the stairs. Pausing before he closed and locked the cell, he glanced back at them as said, "Enjoy your stay, boys."

Once the door was sealed again, Harry immediately turned to Dudley and said, "What was that all about? And Anakin? As in Darth Vader, right? What gives?!"

"When we escape, do you really want the Empire to know our real names while they're hunting us down?" Dudley asked, looking over at his cousin.

"Escape? You _seriously_ think we can?" Harry asked, unable to believe this was the same fat kid who'd bullied and tormented him all of his life while simultaneously having a deep-rooted fear of all things 'freakish'. And this was practically the pinnacle of what was considered 'freaky' by anyone's point of view! "In case you didn't notice, we're unarmed, surrounded by highly-trained troopers, and trapped in a dimension we know _nothing_ about! How can you honestly believe we can escape?"

"Correction," Dudley said, grinning over at Harry. "We're in a dimension that _you_ know nothing about. I, on the other hand, know _quite a bit_ about it! Just stick with me and everything will be A-Okay."

" _Ha!_ " Harry snorted, turning away from his cousin with an angry frown. "Trust you? _That'll_ be the day!"

* * *

 **Imperial Star Destroyer,** _ **Vindicator**_ **  
Orbit of Lothal  
3 days later…**

Agent Kallus was as good as his word.

The boys had been forced to wait several days in that same cell, utterly bored out of their minds with rising tempers. During that time, Kallus made every effort to 'discreetly' get the word out about the capture of two aspiring rebels that had been captured and were suspected of involvement with the Empire Day attack. It was a lie, of course, but one that he manufactured to help sell the deception. But after three days of no action, Kallus was forced to carry out the official transfer or risk exposing his plot to the rebels.

That was how the boys finally found themselves in a new prison cell. This holding cell was just like the previous one. It had no bars, no windows, no furniture, nothing that could potentially be used as weapons for an escape attempt. Not that they would've been all that useful. There was nowhere aboard the ship for a prisoner to go. Even had there been, the two occupants were locked inside a room with no windows and two posted guards outside it. Harry knew he should've been trying to escape, but he also knew it would ultimately be pointless. They were alone and powerless, trapped in a cage awaiting a fate that would be decided by those who didn't care who they were or what their backgrounds were. It was a situation he was all-too-familiar with, having essentially escaped similar circumstances four years ago when he learned of his heritage. But this time was also rather different than back then.

' _How is this_ _ **possible**_ _?_ ' he wondered for the umpteenth time. ' _I know magic can do wondrous things and is never logical in the Muggle sense, but this is just_ _ **ridiculous**_ _! Dudley, this is_ _ **all**_ _your fault!_ '

"Will you sit down and _calm down_?" Dudley asked from where he was seated on the stiff and uncomfortable bench.

"You know why I can't," Harry snapped angrily. "My glasses are broken. Without them, I can't _see_. My _wand_ is broken! Without it, I can't use my _magic!_ Without my magic, we can't _escape!_ "

"And pacing like that is so much more helpful," Dudley said sarcastically. "Will you quit it already? I'm trying to think up an escape plan."

"Oh really?" Harry demanded, turning hotly towards Dudley. "And just what were you planning on doing? Calling for your mommy and daddy to come save you like you always do? I don't think even _they_ could appeal to these guys' _stupidity_ to let you go!"

"No," Dudley admitted, surprising Harry yet again with how incredibly calmly he was taking their situation. "But, unlike you, I happen to have a lot more…experience with this than you. Let me think."

"Experience, he says," Harry muttered as he finally turned and took a seat on the bench on the opposite side of the cell. "How much experience could you have by watching the telly and reading a couple of books?"

"You'd be surprised," Dudley said, smiling as an idea came to him. "Now, will you stop whining like a little bitch and shut up! Honestly, you'd think you would've learned after what happened during _Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull_."

"…What?" Harry asked quietly, raising his eyebrow at the fuzzy image he could see of his cousin.

"Remember? When they were stuck in the jungle, just before the big chase scene?" Dudley said, grinning slightly over Harry as he saw the sudden comprehension light up his face. That movie, however good or bad it might've been, was one of the few that Harry had been allowed to watch when growing up. As such, he quickly understood just what his cousin was hinting at.

"Oh, right…" Harry said, before his face suddenly morphed into an angry grimace as he started raising his voice. "Well, a lot of good it does us now! Look at us! Stuck on a stupid spaceship and being judged by a bunch of dunderheads who barely know how to hold their weapons the right way! Yeah, a lot of good it's done us right now!"

"I said to quit yelling, you scrawny little pansy!" Dudley countered, just as loudly and seemingly angrily. "At least I was actually able to take my guy down! You got shot in the back by a guy who probably had eyes as bad as yours!"

"You wanna make something of it?!" Harry roared, angrily standing to his feet and moving threateningly over to Dudley.

"Yeah, maybe I do!" Dudley shot back, snapping to his feet and throwing a punch at Harry. And it wasn't just for show, it was a real punch that struck Harry right in his gut. But, as they both knew, Harry was rather accustomed to getting beat on by Dudley and easily sucked up the pain, throwing his own punch. His punch, though weaker than Dudley's, connected to Dudley's cheek and sent him to the side from the force. Roaring loudly as he climbed to feet, Dudley charged Harry bodily, tackling him to the ground.

As the pair tussled, the door to their cell suddenly opened as the two guards rushed inside to try and break up the fight. But as they reached the bottom of the cell and moved towards them, the boys suddenly separated and attacked. Harry grabbed the blaster from his guy, lifting and bashing him in the helmet with its shoulder stock. As the man recoiled from the stunning blow, Harry spun the blaster around and pulled the trigger, shooting the man in his lightly armored stomach. Harry stared in shock at what he'd done as the man went down with a shout of pain, not moving much as he life ebbed away. Dudley merely grabbed the ankles of his trooper and yanked his feet out from under him, sending the trooper to the ground as he rose up and body slammed down on the man. If not for the armor, that body slam would've likely crushed the stormtrooper's ribs and quickly killed the man.

"Good idea, Dudley," Harry said quietly, forcing himself to resolutely look away from the man he'd killed. His cousin took the blaster from his downed trooper for himself before rushing for the exit. Moving up to the hallway above, Harry cautiously peeked out and found the hallway utterly abandoned. Looking back at his cousin as he exited the cell, he asked, "What's the plan now?"

"Get out of the detention cells, find a ventilation shaft, sneak to the hangar, steal a ship, and escape," Dudley summarized, already heading towards one end of the prison hallway, seeing the exit.

"Not much of a plan," Harry remarked, squinting hard to try and see where they were going as he cradled the blaster close to his body.

"Maybe, but it's all we got," Dudley said, hoisting his blaster.

As they reached the end of the hallway, they found a pair of officers working the monitors and keyboards. Or, at least, they were supposed to be. One was leaning back in his seat, legs up on the console with his arms tucked behind his head. The other was leaning down onto the console with his arms cushioning him. Both were sound asleep, snoring fitfully. The cousins shared a smirk as they easily crept past the snoozing guards and out into the hallway beyond.

The hall was wide, open, and utterly barren. Moving along, they kept themselves alert as they searched for a vent they could pry open. They soon found one in on the floor about a dozen meters away from an intersection with another hall. Pulling the grate off proved much more difficult then they'd hoped, but again Dudley's considerable weight played to their advantage. Once Harry had managed to pry one of the corners off enough for Dudley to get a grip, he simply leaned on it and started applying his weight on bending and pulling the vent's bolts out of the wall. Travel through the vent proved very slow and tedious. Not only were they trying to be quiet, but they had little idea of where they were going.

Coming upon an intersection between it and another vent, Dudley stopped and looked across at the different ways they could take. Quietly, he muttered out, "Which way now?"

Having calmed down considerably since they'd managed to escape and were now on their way, Harry looked over his cousin's shoulder, trying to make up his own mind of which direction to go. And it was as he was doing this that he felt…something. It was a sensation he'd felt all his life, but had actually gotten a fair bit stronger since he'd attended Hogwarts. It was his magic, he knew. Sometimes, especially during times like Quidditch games, he could feel it reaching out to him. And this time it was like a guiding hand was gently pushing him onwards, encouraging him to take the…

"Left," Harry whispered, attracting Dudley's attention. "We go left."

"How do you know?" Dudley asked, confused.

"I…I just do," Harry said, looking uncertain but also resolute. He was putting his trust in his magic. It had never led him wrong before, why would it start now?

Dudley opened his mouth to argue before he stopped, blinked, and nodded. Squeezing his way into the somewhat narrower duct, Dudley pushed and pulled his way through. "I really hope you're right about this."

"Yeah, me too," Harry whispered. But despite his confusion, he felt no less sure of his choice. In fact, if anything, he felt even more certain that they'd taken the right route. However, travel was much slower now, Dudley's size was working against them.

Then, after what must've been a half an hour, they felt the temperature in the duct beginning to drop. And the farther they went, the colder it got. "Why's it getting so cold?"

"Maybe…maybe we're close to the hangar?" Dudley guessed. "I read that the shielding they use to protect the atmosphere doesn't work on the air temperature. All open hangars are always freezing cold because the vacuum of space sucks all the heat out."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked, not sure if he was impressed or not by Dudley's knowledge.

"Because I _love_ Star Wars," Dudley replied bluntly, grinning over his shoulder awkwardly. Turning his attention forward, his grin widened as he said, "I see a grate ahead! We're almost there!"

Five minutes later, they discovered that prying grates open from the inside was so much _easier_ than the outside. Though the edges were sharp, once Dudley was able to use his sleeve to protect his fingers, it was a relatively simple matter to unbolt the screws just enough to loosen up the grate and gently lower it to the floor. Slipping out of the grate and sliding up behind a series of cargo crates, Dudley peeked out at the hangar bay they found themselves in. He quickly counted twenty TIE fighters that were standing on the bay floor, alongside a troop transport shuttle. If his guess was right, those particular ships were there because they were undergoing some kind of maintenance. However, lining the walls and hanging from racks above were even more TIE fighters, but they didn't seem to be as crowded by work crews as the group in the center of the floor.

"Well, we reached the hangar bay," Harry pointed out, now crouching next to Dudley as he too took in the scene. "What now?"

"We need to steal a ship, but there's a few problems with that," Dudley said as he sat down behind the crate. Harry copied him, turning to glance at him. "We need a pilot. I don't have a clue how to fly any of these ships. And we need a ship that we can actually escape with. One that's fast, has weapons, and, most importantly, shields."

"Oh yeah, TIE fighters don't have shields," Harry said as he glanced around the hangar bay. As he was doing so, something caught his eye or rather a series of things caught his eye. He stared at the ship that was locked into a cradle on the wall. It was clearly a TIE of some sort, but it had some pretty drastic differences to the TIE fighter that he was most familiar with. Notably, the curved and pointed wings. It was then that he felt it. That same feeling from earlier. His magic was gently tugging and nudging at him, beckoning him towards the TIE.

"Yes," Dudley was saying. "And that's even just assuming that we're still close to a planet that's got a breathable atmosphere! For all we know, we might've been better off back in our cell than—"

"Dudley, follow me," Harry interrupted, no longer able to ignore or resist that feeling anymore. "I've got this."

"What?" Dudley asked, watching as Harry turned and started creeping along the wall. Frantically, he hissed out, "What are you doing?!"

"Follow me!" Harry repeated back to him. "I've got this!"

"What?" Dudley repeated as he quickly and not nearly as gracefully started following. "What are you talking about? Got wha—Wait, do you mean to fly? Do you even _know_ how to fly a TIE fighter?!"

"I can fly _anything_ ," Harry asserted with full confidence. And it was true. He'd found that out over the years since entering the Wizarding World. "Wings, no wings, engine-powered, bestial, magical, or mundane. If it _flies_ , I can fly it!"

Dudley didn't try to argue the point further. He knew what they were already doing was something that very few others would've attempted, or even gotten as far into. What they were attempting bordered on the insane when considered under realistic circumstances. Sure, the telly show made it seem easy but he had also read many of the books and knew just how difficult it could be. Escaping from the custody of the Empire, much less from inside a Star Destroyer, was nearly impossible. Nearly.

The very impossibility of it worked in their favor. They could not be prisoners trying to escape, because prisoners aboard Star Destroyers simply did not escape. It was this sense of surety and security, and maybe even arrogance, that allowed the two boys to sneak from one unlikely hiding spot to the next, oftentimes avoiding a tech or mechanic's attention by the skins of their teeth. This game continued for several long minutes as they made their way closer and closer to the vehicle that caught Harry's attention.

The craft they were heading towards quickly drew Dudley's appreciative attention, easily recognizing it as an Imperial TIE Interceptor. ' _I didn't think they'd already started production of these yet. Maybe it's an advanced prototype for Special Forces or something?_ ' If one discounted the origins, its dark angles took on a deadly beauty. No one stood near it, no techs, no maintenance workers, and no guards. What reason could there be to have a guard beside a ship inside a Star Destroyer? The entry hatch was open, open and inviting, almost beckoning.

A tech droid came toward them, trundling along the open floor. Despite keeping his attention on where he was heading and the approaching droid, Harry could almost feel his cousin's mounting tension, excitement and fear at the sight of the droid. But they maintained their pace and hiding spot underneath a section of the racks the TIE was parked on. The droid continued on its way, not seeming to notice them, which relaxed Dudley very slightly. Then, as the droid passed and with none of the personnel in the hangar paying attention, the two boys quickly mounted and scurried up the stairs towards the open hatch of their desired vehicle.

The interior of the TIE Interceptor was spotless. Droids and techs had done their work well, leaving it ready for the pilot's return. Harry let out a heavy sigh of relief as he settled himself into the pilot's seat while Dudley quietly closed and sealed the hatch above them. Looking at the controls laid out before him, Harry examined them closely, even as he busied himself by strapping and locking the flight harness around his torso. Though he didn't know too much about computers and mechanics, Harry's instincts were telling him that a fighter like this one would be naturally forgiving, its computational components engineered to compensate for pilot miscues and oversights. He knew he would be relying on the likelihood that the ship itself would automatically correct for any minor mistakes in judgment, its own form of 'magic' as far as he was concerned. But only minor mistakes, _he_ still had to fly the thing.

Movement behind him caused him to glance back over his shoulder. Dudley had taken up residence behind the pilot's seat, gripping it tightly since there were no extra safety harnesses to use. Harry grinned back at his fat cousin as he blindly reached forward and started flipping switches and pressing buttons at random. Whether due to luck or something else, the console and display suddenly lit up as the starfighter started coming online. "You know, Dudley, I think you might be right. Being here might not be so bad. I've always wanted to fly Star Wars spaceships!"

Before Dudley could do more than grin in reply, the engines suddenly roared to life. Grasping the peculiarly shaped control stick, Harry nudged the stick forward and felt the craft vibrate but otherwise not move. Changing direction quickly, he pulled backward and downward slightly and the ship rose up out of its cradle with an almost dainty grace. Realigning the stick slightly, he tried urging the craft forward towards the massive open bay doors and the planet below. Unfortunately, the ship was still tethered to the support lines. Cables twanged as they went taut, holding the Interceptor to the cradle.

* * *

Inside the main control room of the hangar bay, a confused tech turned from his console to the officer passing close behind him. "Sir, we have an unsanctioned departure from Bay Ten."

The Imperial Lieutenant halted, turned, and stared out the sweeping port that overlooked the hangar floor. At the far end, he could see the fighter craft still struggling to decouple from its support cabling. Neither the apparent lack of preflight movements nor the fact that cabling was still engaged made any sense. That they were occurring simultaneously suggested a serious miscarriage of duty—or the inconceivable. "Get me communications with that vessel. Alert ship command, notify Captain Putz, and stop that fighter!"

Throughout the _Vindicator_ , confusion expanded exponentially. Departments were alerted that normally went idle while the ship was in orbit around peaceful planets. Off-duty personnel were roused to the sound of alarms ringing on their personal communicators. Contradictory commands flew back and forth between confused sections. A large majority of those alerted responded slowly and reluctantly, confident that what they were responding to was nothing more than a drill.

* * *

No such illusions afflicted the hurriedly assembled stormtroopers who were struggling to push a heavy weapons platform into position on the hangar deck. The musical spang of cables snapping away from the TIE Interceptor pressed them to move even faster. The officer in charge was shouting, but no command could ready the cannon quicker than its energizing program allowed. It would take another moment or two to fully power up.

Seeing the threat that was being prepared on the other side of the hangar, Harry set his thumbs upon the small red buttons at the top of the control stick, aiming blindly. A series of massive green blasts from each of the four sharp wingtips filled the hangar as he fired upon everything, cringing each time he saw a body go flying. Internal weapons emplacements shattered. Troopers and the mobile cannon were obliterated. Parked TIE fighters and the other Interceptors were reduced to rubble, fragments of fuselage and wings bouncing off the deck, ceiling, and walls. One collective laser burst demolished the hangar control room. Where moments before there had been calm, now there was bedlam, alarm, and laser fire.

The latter was extinguished when the Interceptor lifted, spun on its axis, and Harry (once again feeling a faint guiding touch) pressed a random button on the console. The button instantly switched from red to green, having its departure mode finally be successfully activated. It had been locked down by the hangar controllers, but when Harry had imploded the operations center, all electronics that were usually controlled from there had gone neutral. Thus, the TIE Interceptor had no trouble resolving the problem, automatically issuing the necessary directives.

"Eat that, ya stupid imps!" Dudley cheered, having thoroughly enjoyed watching Harry demolish the hangar.

Angling the Interceptor, Harry pulled back sharply on the yoke, causing the starfighter to lurch as it shot forward at incredible speeds. " _CHHHEEEEE-_ _ **HOOOOOOOOOOO!**_ " Harry cheered, relishing the acceleration and freedom of flight as they shot out into space. " _THIS BABY_ _ **REALLY**_ _MOVES!_ "

Seeing that his cousin was intending to fly straight for the planet, Dudley quickly leaned forward and grabbed at Harry's arms. "Wait, wait! Bad idea! If we rush back down there now, they'll be able to shoot us down with their heavy cannons! We need to go back and disable or destroy a few of them before we can land safely!"

"Sure!" Harry agreed easily, already swinging the craft around and flying back towards the massive profile of the Destroyer. "I wanted to get some payback on these bastards anyway!"

' _This isn't a ship, it's me_ ,' Harry told himself as he gleefully manipulated the control stick. It was a part of him, an extension of his own body, just like how he always felt whenever he rode his Firebolt back at Hogwarts. As massive sprays of green turbolasers started filling space, lancing out towards them from the immense starship, he whirled and spun the TIE Interceptor, utilizing mostly his own instincts and that guiding magical force he was still feeling, practically ignoring the predictors and targeting computers as they flashed and glowed on the joystick in his hands.

Swooping back under the mothership, he danced back and forth through the gaps and openings, executing maneuvers beyond the abilities of all but the best of pilots. Several skirted the edge of possibility as he sprayed his own laser fire into the exposed and too-slowly rotating cannon turrets. But Harry didn't care, he was free and he was flying. Seeing a particularly large weapons emplacement up ahead, he unleashed his fire upon it, leaving a blazing trail of carbon burns and damage along the hull of the destroyer until he struck his desired target remorselessly.

Seeing the large emplacement erupt in fire and debris, both boys cheered loudly as they shot out from under and behind the behemoth. Pulling downward fiercely on the yoke, the fighter pulled up into a sharp climb before spinning around and approaching the Destroyer from behind. Leaning forward again, Dudley pointed forward as he said, "See those large balls there? Those are the shield generators. Destroy those and the entire ship is defenseless."

"But we're not here to destroy it," Harry reminded him. "Just need to make them not want to chase us."

"Then destroy just one of them," Dudley suggested, shrugging unconcernedly.

"I suppose," Harry agreed, already squeezing the firing buttons.

Unlike earlier, the laser fire impacted an invisible barrier around the command tower and the generators, not having any affect whatsoever. Frowning at that, Harry wondered why the shield hadn't been working earlier. Then he realized why: because he'd been flying very close to the ship's hull! Grinning like a madman, Harry threw the Interceptor into a dizzying series of spinning dodges as he evaded the defensive fire from the cannons up top. Settling on a line of attack, he prepared to dive once more towards the heart of the Star Destroyer, a bug attacking an elephant.

But it was a bug with a very nasty bite.

* * *

On the main bridge of the _Vindicator_ , Captain Putz peered down upon the holo-table. The hologram showing was a blue outline of the Star Destroyer with flickering red sections highlighting damaged areas and a small circling icon signifying the stolen TIE Interceptor.

The captain could barely believe what he had been told. Not only had the prisoners escaped, they had managed to find their way down to the hangar bay, find and steal a ready-to-fly fighter, and blast their way free. And it wasn't just any fighter either, but one of the still limited preproduction models of the soon-to-be mass produced TIE Interceptor! Though he only had six of those unique ships aboard his vessel, it was a great privilege and hinted towards better things in his future if things went right. But now, his potentially bright career was in jeopardy! By a pair of teenagers, no less!

If the proof had not been right in front of him, making a treacherous nuisance of itself as the _Vindicator_ 's perceptors strove to keep track of the stole fighter, Putz would not have believed such a thing was possible!

A very slight shudder ran through the deck. One of his lieutenants was speaking to him, barely managing to keep his voice even, just as shaken by the events taking place as Putz was. "They've taken out an entire bank of defensive weaponry. And they continue to attack. The trajectory suggests they're after our shield generators! They're not running."

Putz didn't understand. It was beyond comprehension. Prisoners ran from prisons, they didn't stick around to assault their jailers. The action smacked of an unshakeable wish to commit suicide. Then again, they were just teenagers, probably not realizing the true extent of their mortality. But, on the other hand, how could a pair of random teenagers perform all of these actions and yet still live? What he knew of the escaped prisoners strongly suggested a desire to live. What had happened to change them? Or, Putz thought, was the profile that had been drawn up by the psytechs simply wrong?

Formal profile or not, of one thing he was now certain: they had badly underestimated what had seemed to be just a pair of random Lothal children.

"Intensify the forward firing batteries!" Putz commanded. "I don't want them getting any closer to our hull!"

"Yes sir!"

* * *

Banking sharply to the side and narrowly dodging a pair of turbolasers, Harry cried out exultantly. "I think they're on to us, Dud!"

"Just keep to the plan!" Dudley asserted, having knelt down to the floor and was fiddling a series of wires under a panel he'd opened. "Turbolasers are meant for capital ships, not starfighters! They can't hit us unless you make a mistake!" Finally finding a distinctive pair of red and blue wires that were strapped together, he yanked on them and pulled them out of their sockets. A small glowing red button on Harry's console went dead, but he paid it no mind.

"That's good to know," Harry said as he brought the TIE down and started buzzing along the upper hull of the destroyer. As the command tower came rushing up, he pulled back on the stick and opened fire. Because he was once again under their shields, his lasers easily impacted one of the domes with only minimal resistance from its metallic coverings. Under a short barrage, the ball exploded spectacularly as Harry dove under the section of the command tower it was located on.

"Generator destroyed," Harry said, swinging the Interceptor around and making a mad rush for the planet below them. Just as Dudley had predicted, the Star Destroyer didn't offer up any type of retaliation or impede on their escape now that they had too many problems of their own to deal with.

"Level off, Harry," Dudley said, gesturing towards the tips of the Interceptor's wings that were starting to gain an unnatural glow. "You're descending at too steep of an angle!"

"I know that!" Harry snapped, glaring at his cousin but still complying with his command. "I'm just trying to get away as fast as possible and the steeper we go, the faster we go!"

"But the Interceptor has no shields!" Dudley reminded him. "That means that you can only enter at so steep of an angle without burning us up! _Pull up!_ "

Growling loudly, Harry complied again. Rather than making a nearly vertical dive, they were now merely in a very steep one. Much to Harry's annoyance, the red glow upon the wingtips soon faded back to its normal coloring now that the dive wasn't so sheer.

It was a quiet few minutes as they descended down into the atmosphere, rushing through and past the clouds until they leveled off again after reaching the lower atmosphere. As Harry concentrated on flying the ship and looking for a potential spot to land and hide, Dudley was fiddling with one of the monitors. He was having quite a bit of trouble making sense of it because he couldn't read the galactic script. But what he couldn't read, he could easily understand the icons that were upon the monitor.

"If I'm reading this right," Dudley said, sounding rather uncertain. "Then the capital city is about 150 kilometers east of here. There looks like another couple of small towns and villages about 50 to 100 kilometers to the west, north, and south of here."

"Well, since _you're_ the expert here," Harry said, lacking the barbs that he used to have in his tone these past few days. "Where should we go? The capital seems like a bad choice though."

"Let's head…due west," Dudley said, gesturing to the side. "That's where the smallest settlement is that I can find and it looks like there's a lot of hills or rocks in that area we could hide this baby in for the time being."

"…Good idea," Harry said, swinging the fighter to the side before leveling out again.

* * *

( **Author's Note** ) Clearly, I've been watching far too much _Star Wars Rebels_ lately. What with the epic Season 3 finale and so many new info of upcoming movies and teasers that we've been and will be getting, _Star Wars_ has been on my brain a lot recently. Besides, I've been wanting to do a HP/SW crossover for a while, but have been waiting to in order to give _Rebels_ a chance to flesh out and give us some plot points to work with. Now, I feel somewhat more assured at being able to make a suitable story.

If the story or characters don't feel right, I apologize right here and now. I haven't gotten this story beta-read and I will freely admit that I don't know as many of the characters nearly as well I wish I did. So, I'm seriously going to be relying on you guys to tell when/if I mess up on their personalities, potential reactions, and personal motivations.

In other words: **PLEASE REVIEW!**


	2. Encounter in Jhothal

**.**

 **The New Rebels  
** By: Tellemicus Sundance  
 _#02: Encounter in Jhothal_

He was…dreaming. In his dream, he was a snake that was slithering along the cold floor of a manor. The scent of its master filled the air of the room, combined with the scent of ages old dust, those of the timid things that would've made good eating which tended to the massive structure, and the scent of its master's underlings.

In his dream, he watched and listened as it's master received surprising news. Though the words meant nothing to the snake, the part of the snake that was him understood everything that was said between the two. "And this is true?" the master said.

"Yes, master," the fearful underling stated, kneeling before his master with his head bowed, eyes averted to keep from staring down at the massive serpent that was leisurely making its way around their master's ankles. "The Ministry detected a massive surge of unregistered magic within the premises of the boy's family's home. At first, they reacted as you'd anticipated with the fool trying to expel the boy and Dumbledore scrambling to prevent it."

"An interesting development," the master hissed, hand curling around his chin as he contemplated. "What has the Ministry decided?"

"It has been decided to hold a trial for the boy in five days' time," the underling said. "And with how I've managed to make the fool so paranoid about Dumbledore these days, he may decide to make this a full-blown trial with the entirety of the Wizengamot present."

"Yes, to make the expulsion seem as 'legitimate' as possible," the master agreed softly, smiling sinisterly into his hand that still held his chin. "Perhaps it's time we start swinging things in our favor somewhat. Tell me, Lucius, how many of the Wizengamot believe in our cause?"

"Certainly the majority," the underling replied, quickly and confidently. "Though they try to hide their allegiance behind their jobs and laws. Although, if presented with suitable evidence or explanation of the circumstances, some may show the boy leniency, as this is his first truly major violation of the laws."

"Not good enough," the master hissed out angrily. "Make sure that you buy off those who might hesitate! I want the boy out of the castle and away from Dumbledore's immediate protection!"

"Yes, my lord," the underling submitted, bowing his head even deeper to show his compliance. "It shall be done."

Flicking his tongue out to taste the air again, he detected the presence of another rapidly approaching. Not only in the air, but also through the vibrations of the wood and stone of the ground underneath. Whoever it was, they were certainly in a hurry. ' _Sssssomeone approachessssss_ ,' he hissed out to his master as he reared his head up level with his master's hand. His master lovingly caressed his head, glancing down at him for a moment before turning his attention to the closed doors of the room.

Sure enough, they were rudely opened by another man, causing the underling already present to flinch in surprise at the loud noise. The new man was larger and stockier than the pair already present, but pon opening the doors, the underling instantly dropped to his knee. "My lord, I apologize for the intrusion, but new information has just come to my attention! The boy is missing!"

"…What?" his master asked slowly, glaring at the man, daring him to be vague in his statement again.

"The boy, my lord, is missing from his home!" the man stated again, still kneeling. "Apparently, Dumbledore sent one of his people to collect the boy but found that he and his cousin were both missing. No one knows where he's gone, not even Dumbledore! He's missing, my lord!"

The master was silent for a long moment, clearly surprised by this highly unexpected news. As he looked up at his master, he saw that his face was constantly shifting between incredulous joy and unbridled but confused fury.

Before the master could fully commit to one emotion over the other, the new underling continued, "The Minister is raving about how the boy has been taken to a secret location to receive training by Dumbledore to serve as the first of his new army against the Ministry. The Minister has issued a top priority search of the house, thorough interrogation of his relatives, and even a few searches of some of Dumbledore's known lackeys' homes. As well as a reward for any clues or discoveries to the boy's whereabouts, effective immediately."

That did it. The master was now sneering in unbridled joy. "This is perfect! With this reckless stunt, the boy has just made himself Undesirable #1, as far as the Ministry is concerned! Lucius! Return to the Ministry and make sure of it!"

"Yes, master!" the first underling acknowledged, rising to his feet and rapidly departing, taking the second underling with him.

His vision began to blur and fade into darkness. But even that darkness wasn't enough to keep the echoing laughter of Voldemort from following him all the way back to the conscious world. Harry Potter awoke with a start, sweating and panting heavily. His scar burned like a hot iron was pressed against it, blood seeping out and flowing back into his hair and down into his eye. Tenderly raising a hand to his hand, he flinched as he gently pressed his palm against the scar in an effort to staunch the bleeding.

"…Voldemort," he hissed out angrily, glaring off into space. "I won't let you…ruin my life back home!"

* * *

 **Near Jhothal  
May 24, 3272 LY**

The fourth day of their stay on this planet dawned as gray and cloudy. Thunder rumbled in the distance as faint flashes of lightning arched through the clouds on the horizon. But Harry paid the wind and rain little mind from his seat on the ground under the pod of the Interceptor. His mind was awhirl with questions, thoughts, and fears, all centered around that vivid dream he'd had a few hours earlier. This was the state that Dudley found him in when he awoke and climbed out of the Interceptor's pod and dropped to the ground, painfully stretching his aching muscles.

But even though he could tell that his cousin was in a bad mood didn't stop from saying, "I'm hungry. What's for breakfast?"

"We don't have any food, Dudley," Harry said, irritably.

"What?" Dudley whined. "Seriously?"

"Of course not!" the wizard snapped, turning a glare on Dudley. "Did either of us think to pack a bag of chips and granola bars before we came here? Did we have time to steal any food before we left the Star Destroyer yesterday? Have we had time to forage or find a village we could maybe trade or steal from yet? NO! We don't have any food! Deal with it!"

"Okay, okay!" Dudley yelled back, matching Harry's loud voice with his own. "I get the picture! No need to get mad, Potter!"

"I think I've got every reason to be mad right now!" Harry yelled, climbing to his feet and glaring at Dudley. "I'm trapped in this place here while my friends and the rest of the Wizarding World don't know anything about it! I could get into serious trouble with the wizarding Ministry and the school's board of governors, and that's not even taking into account Voldemort!"

"What are you talking about?" Dudley asked lowly, frowning as he gazed upon the wizard with a critical stare. "Why should you care what's happening back in your precious magical world? It's not like you could actually do anything even if you were there anyway. You're still just a kid!"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Harry demanded hotly, moving forward to stand and glare straight into Dudley's face. "'I'm just a kid'? What's that mean?!"

"It means what it means!" Dudley snapped back, leaning forward slightly to match Harry's aggression. "You're _14!_ Do you seriously expect anyone to take a _14-year-old_ _**seriously?!**_ I know no one takes _me_ seriously! Why should anyone give _you_ that privilege?"

"But you're an _idiot_ , Dudley!" Harry shot back. "You don't care what's going on in the world around you! You'd rather sit on your ass playing games or sneaking out to an alley to smoke some cigarettes with your 'little friends' than to care about who's running for Prime Minister and why!"

"Of course I didn't care about that!" Dudley pushed back, glaring angrily. "I was just a kid stuck in a house with parents who _didn't_ want me doing _anything_ they didn't see as _normal!_ Of course I won't try to care about what's happening outside the house when I'm not _allowed_ to! But that _doesn't_ tell me why you seem to think _**you**_ should receive such special treatment! And _don't_ tell me it's because you're a wizard stuck in the nonmagical world!"

"No, it's _not_ because of _that!_ " Harry barked. But then he faltered for a second. Taking a few steps back, he took a deep, calming breath before quietly admitting, "Yes, that does play a role in it. But it's not the sole reason!"

"Then _tell me_ why you're so determined to rush back there!" Dudley ordered.

Harry was silent for a long moment, merely glaring angrily at Dudley. Dudley matched his glare easily. It was a test of wills, someone would have to break. Harry didn't want to tell his cousin because he didn't like Dudley after all the suffering and pain he'd endured from him. Plus, he wasn't supposed to tell Muggles anything about the Wizarding World, as part of the Wizarding secrecy laws. Dudley wasn't backing down because he felt that they had an unprecedented opportunity. To be heroes, to help people, to learn new and exciting things, to see more, to be more. There were so many reasons, too many to list, for why he felt that this was perhaps the _greatest_ opportunity he'd ever get in his life. In the end, it was the simple fact that they were related and Dudley already knew more about the Wizarding World than most Muggle did that broke Harry's resolve.

"What do you know about the circumstances of how my parents died?" Harry asked, crossing his arms and maintaining his frown as he watched his cousin.

"Uh…?" Dudley stuttered, somewhat surprised by this unexpected change in topic. "Not much? Only that they died on Halloween when we were babies, you came to us, and that they were Wizards also?" Even his tone showed his uncertainty in his own knowledge as he spoke.

"So, you know nothing then," Harry translated. "Well, the short version is that a madman, a dark wizard, a Dark Lord I guess you'd say, decided to personally kill my parents for _daring_ to resist him and his political regime. Thanks to a traitor my parents had trusted with vital secret information, Voldemort the Dark Lord found where we were hiding. He killed my parents and tried to kill me. But something went wrong. His body was destroyed, my home burned, and all I had was a little scar to show for it." He tapped his enflamed scar tenderly as he mentioned it.

"His regime and underlings were soon hunted down by the Ministry and the Wizarding World returned to a state of peace with everyone believing that I had somehow managed to kill the most powerful and evil Dark Wizard who'd ever lived. But I found out in my first year at school that this _wasn't_ true. He was still alive, barely. He'd become like a parasitic ghost, latching onto and feeding off his hosts to survive. Then, last month, one of his last free underlings captured me and used me in a ritual to revive his master. It worked, and now Voldemort is _back_ , alive and growing in power once again." Turning a heated glare back upon his cousin, he finished his speech with saying, "And _that_ is why I need to get back home _right now!_ I need to _help_ , however I can! Voldemort deeply hates me. He sees me as his greatest enemy because I'd _already_ defeated him once and he fears that I can do it _again_. And I _intend_ to!"

Dudley was frowning as he listened to his cousin's ranting explanation. Once Harry had finished, he remained quiet for a few long moments, clearly thinking over what was said. Then he shook his head and returned his attention to Harry. "I stand by what I said, Harry. You are still only 14. Even _if_ you somehow manage to recreate whatever magic that killed this Dark Lord before, no one is going to take you seriously. No one is going to let you onto the battlefield _as you are_. Not with the skills you likely have. And especially not against someone like this Voldemort guy."

Harry didn't even bother demanding an explanation. His raised brow and glare were all that he needed to communicate.

"This Dark Lord is probably, what, 40-60 years old, right Harry?" Dudley asked, earning a nod of agreement. "And you are 14. In case you've forgotten, with _age_ comes _experience_. He's got a minimum of _20 years_ of experience in your precious _magic_. You have _4 years_. I bet that everything _you_ know and are still learning, _he's_ long since mastered. You need to gain some actual experience before you can safely fight against him, ten years I'd wager, just to be able to survive if he's as badass of an evil madman as you've been making him out to be." Harry frowned deeply at that, but was unable to formulate an adequate rebuke to Dudley's point.

"So, because you _don't_ have the luxury of time available, what could you _possibly_ do to try and level the playing field with him?" Dudley asked, smirking slightly as he now began his sales pitch to convince his cousin. He waited a second or two to see if Harry would come to the same conclusion that he did. When the Potter made no indication one way or the other, he continued, "You need a _wild_ _card_. Something _new_ and powerful. Something that he has no experience _with_ or _against_. Something that can catch him by surprise _long_ _enough_ for you to send him to hell where he belongs!"

"And you think us staying here will help me find something to use against him," Harry summarized bluntly. At Dudley's nod, he said, "And just _what_ did you have in mind that I could use against Voldemort? Since you _clearly_ have _something_ in mind."

"You can use _magic_ ," Dudley said lowly, disgust creeping into his voice at the use of the 'm-word'. "Wouldn't that mean that you could potentially learn to use _the_ _Force_? Become a _Jedi_?"

Harry actually stopped and blinked, that thought having not even occurred to him yet. Then he shook it off. "I highly doubt it, Dudley. Just because I can use magic _doesn't_ mean that it can translate into me using the Force. I don't have the _faintest_ _clue_ of just _what_ the Force _is_ anyway. And besides that, we'd first have to find me a teacher who'd be willing to train me. Do you know exactly where Kenobi or Yoda even are? Because I sure don't! They could be anywhere!"

"Sure, Kenobi and Yoda are out of the question," Dudley agreed easily, still maintaining his devil-may-care grin. "But I just so happen to know of _another Jedi_. One who's presently _on this planet_ , fighting the Empire, and teaching another student in the ways of the Force!" Seeing Harry's surprised face, Dudley's grin widened. "Don't be _that_ surprised! What would a Star Wars telly show be like without at least _one_ Jedi in it?"

"Oh yeah, that's right," Harry muttered, having forgotten momentarily that this was all based on a television show. "Still, the point remains that my magic may be something completely different from the Force!"

"Ha!" Dudley laughed. "The Force is just 'space magic'! Of course you can learn it if you wanted to!"

Harry actually had to blink. Dudley's sheer confidence and exuberance in that statement practically washing over him like a tsunami on the beach. Shaking his head, he groaned out, " _Fine_ … But we still have no clue where this guy is or how to contact him. And that's even assuming he'd be _willing_ to let me train or have us join his group, as I'm sure you want to do."

"Yeah," Dudley said, lowly and thoughtfully. "I've been thinking about that and I've got a few ideas on how we might be able to get his attention and get him and his group to come to us."

Harry stared at Dudley for a moment before he sighed resignedly. "I'm _not_ going to like this, am I?"

"Probably not," the fat boy admitted. "But if it works out right, it'll _definitely_ start turning some heads in our direction."

"Fine, tell me," Harry groaned out.

* * *

 **Capital City**

' _Something has…changed_ ,' the Grand Inquisitor thought, frowning contemplatively.

The Pau'an was kneeling in his personal chamber, meditating on the dark side of the Force in a vain attempt to once again locate his prey. But, unlike all prior times, this time he could sense something. It wasn't the Jedi and his Padawan, unfortunately. But it was something…else. Something – or _someone_ – new had arrived on Lothal while he'd been busy pursuing the rebels after Empire Day. He knew this because the Force presence of this individual was quite different from the Jedi. It was…expressive, almost _exuberantly_ so when compared to a Jedi.

But that wasn't the only thing that made it clear this wasn't a Jedi. This individual possessed a strong tendency towards the dark side of the Force and yet…it didn't feel like most other dark siders that served the Empire. If the Inquisitors and their Sith masters were as cold and unmoving as ice, this person was as warm and temperamental as molten lava. The new one expressed his emotions, lashed out with them like most dark siders would, but it didn't seem to draw it's power from the dark side. It was…odd to feel in the Force.

' _Who are you?_ _ **What**_ _are you?_ ' he wondered to himself, frowning thoughtfully as he sought out the location of this person through the Force. He could sense that the person was definitely on Lothal, but nowhere near Capital City.

The chime of his communicator startled the Inquisitor out of his meditation. Frowning, he took a second to suppress his reflexive anger and bottle it up. Anger was useful, but it was also a danger when used improperly, and he'd long ago sworn to never let his rage impede his judgment or his mission.

"This is the Inquisitor," he spoke into his communicator. "Speak."

" _Please forgive the interruption, Inquisitor_ ," It was Agent Kallus. If nothing else, the Inquisitor knew that the man understood how to prioritize his messages and when to bring certain information to his attention. So, that Agent Kallus would interrupt his meditation so soon after his return from Fort Anaxes implied it must be important. That was why he allowed Kallus to continue speaking without interruption. " _But during your absence, there has been a unique development involving two prisoners the garrison took during Empire Day_."

"What happened?" he asked, curious.

" _Through…unspecified circumstances, the pair escaped from aboard a Star Destroyer, inflicted substantial damage to the vessel, before fleeing back to Lothal_ ," Kallus stated. " _They have been in hiding ever since and all garrisons are on alert for when or if these prisoners reveal themselves again_."

Taking a moment to draw on the Force, he felt the darkness…teasing at him. There was something of important relevance to this report, but it wasn't quite telling him what. Teasing him, mocking him, trying to get him angrier at the fact that it wouldn't submit to his wishes of clarity. Though this did indeed anger him, he again suppressed it and focused. "I sense there is something you are not telling me, Agent."

" _Yes, Inquisitor_ ," the hesitance in Kallus's voice was obvious, though he pressed on resolutely. " _Through means we don't know, these prisoners, two teenage boys of possibly 15, have somehow managed to hack into our Imperial datafiles and erase all evidence of their existence. Even the best computer analysts I've been able to contact over the past few days have been unable to find even a 'fingerprint' to suggest altered or deleted data. As of yet, these two boys have remained unidentified, merely giving us the codenames of 'Boba Fett' and 'Anakin Skywalker' to call them_."

Despite himself, the Inquisitor couldn't help quirking his eyebrow in surprise at their chosen codenames. They were clearly either arrogant to name themselves as such, or ignorant of the importance behind those names. Still, the Inquisitor could now understand why Kallus had called him so quickly after his return. This apparent lack of information was startling, as were the implications that a pair of teenagers were seemingly able to pull it off (whether directly or indirectly).

" _To compound the situation further_ ," Kallus continued. " _When the pair escaped, they had managed to steal a preproduction TIE Interceptor that had been left unattended at the time. Judging from the footage I've acquired regarding their escape and attack on the Destroyer, I've determined that whoever was flying the TIE had either an ace's expertise in space combat or he possessed a…_ _ **special intuition**_ _for flight_."

"Oh, is that so, Agent Kallus?" the Inquisitor responded, his earlier frown now replaced by a dark grin. ' _So, this new one I've been sensing must be one of these boys. This gives locating and capturing him even_ _ **higher**_ _priority than I'd first assumed_.' "Very well, Agent. I shall look into this matter personally. In the meantime, monitor all activity among the spaceports, particularly the far ones. Mobilize the garrisons to discreetly search the outlying towns, villages, and spaceports, and offer up a reward of a thousand credits for valid information on the whereabouts of these two boys. If anything unusual happens, inform me immediately."

"At once, Inquisitor," Kallus answered. The Inquisitor had little doubt that the ISB agent had already initiated most of the orders that he'd given, but it always better to be sure they were issued than to assume and be wrong.

Setting his communicator down, the Inquisitor settled back down into his meditation. Scanning, scrying, perceiving Lothal in a manner that very few others could understand, seeking out that peculiarly warm miasma that was the new dark side user he could vaguely sense but not quite locate.

' _Where are you, new one?_ ' he called out. ' _You can't hide from me forever_.'

Unbeknownst to the Inquisitor, he wasn't the only one seeking the new one.

* * *

 **Jhothal  
That afternoon…**

It'd taken the boys the better part of the morning to reach the town they'd landed near to. Of course, 'near' was a relative term to use when in flight. What was a thirty-second overhead flight in the Interceptor turned out to be a two-hour walk for them. Though, that's not to say that they were being slow in their journey, walking at a pretty good pace. It was the terrain and the weather that was against them, that slowed them down.

After safely locking the TIE Interceptor's pod to prevent any unwanted intruders, the boys had started walking, passing the time by discussing some of Dudley's plans and ambitions. Harry was unconcerned about interfering with the 'plotline' of the telly show. As far as he was concerned, this had long since stopped being about following a plot and merely surviving from day to day. But Dudley was insistent on sharing certain 'crucial' information, particularly in how the Specter cell of the _Ghost_ would be the catalyst to bringing forth the actual Rebellion. Specifically how it was the Jedi's capture and following rescue that set the stage for it. But Harry only listened with half an ear, not caring in the least.

By the time they'd reached the town, they were freezing from the winds and completely drenched from the rain. When they spotted the town, they rushed for it and blindly entered the first public building they could find, which turned out to be a pub of some kind. The bartender was some kind of weird alien that wore a mechanical device over the mouths it had on the sides of its snout-like face which somehow translated its grunting warbles into English for them.

The alien bartender introduced itself as 'Old Jho', the owner and manager of the cantina and three connected hangar bays. Dudley introduced them as lost travelers who'd been robbed of all their possessions and credit upon landing on Lothal. Though Jho didn't seem to believe them, he didn't bother accusing them of lying outright either. Instead, he offered them some cups of water as it was the only beverage he served that was free. And it was a beverage both boys accepted heartily, having been nursing parched mouths since they'd woken upon. The water was satisfying, but not filling or sating their hunger. But it would do for the time being.

They ended up staying for almost two hours in the cantina. It was warm and much drier than outside. Dudley spent a lot of time talking with Jho, discreetly probing about the local Imperial presence. Harry was quite happy to just watch and listen as he sipped his water. Eventually, the easy comradery between Dudley and Jho eased Harry's tensions and he started…slipping away.

'… _Harry_ …' a voice whispered into his mind, both startling and soothing Harry's turbulent mind. The voice was light, faint from distance, but having a vaguely uplifting musical lilt to it. '… _Harry_ …'

"—do you think, Harry?" Dudley's voice suddenly intruded, jolting him out of the slight trance he'd fallen into. Gasping and pushing away from the Dudley out of surprise, Harry get a small, startled cry as he felt his chair tip dangerously and he fell to the floor in an undignified heap.

"What's with you, Harry?" Dudley asked, looking down at his embarrassed cousin as he quickly climbed back to his feet.

"Nothing," Harry said, looking and sounding quite uncertain and awkward to both Dudley and Jho. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. What were you saying again?"

"…I said, it might be a good idea for us to sell our space craft," Dudley repeated. "We need the credits and the thing is in excellent shape. Jho here says that he knows someone who might be willing to purchase it discreetly, if you know what I mean."

"A black-market dealer then?" Harry guessed, shrugging. "Why not? How much do you think we could get out of it?"

"Considering how new it is and how great a shape it's in," Dudley said, musingly. "I think we could get a lot of credits for it."

"Whatever, you're the expert here," Harry reiterated.

Turning back to Jho, Dudley nodded with a grin. "I guess we have an agreement, kind sir."

"I guess we do," Jho said, somehow looking quite reluctant despite having no appreciable human features. "I'll get into contact with him later tonight. Come back tomorrow and I should have a set of coordinates for you to meet him at, assuming he's presently on Lothal."

"Sounds good," Dudley agreed, still grinning. Standing up, he grabbed Harry's shoulder and gestured for him to follow. "Come on, Harry. It's stopped raining. Maybe we can find something else to do in the meantime?"

"What we should do is get new clothes," Harry pointed out as they exited the cantina and started walking down the short, central main street of the town. "I don't know if you care, but I do. We've been in these same clothes for almost a week now! They're starting to smell really bad, and so are we."

Pausing, Dudley leaned slightly as he took a deep but quick whiff of his armpit. Wincing slightly at the fragrance he smelt, he nodded, "Good idea. But first we'll need credits to buy some, unless…"

He trailed off as he caught a glimpse of a familiar white-armored figure nearby. Grabbing Harry's arm, he pulled him quickly into a nearby side-alley and crouched down slightly. Though surprised, Harry didn't resist Dudley, especially not once he too spotted the approaching stormtroopers. There were four of them, being led by a man in gray officer's uniform. Uncomfortable with using the blaster rifle he wore over his shoulder, Harry instead started looking around on the ground. He grabbed a nearby piece of metal pipe that was nearly as long as he was tall. Dudley, meanwhile, just hoisted up his blaster in a ready but not quite firing position.

"Harry, I've just gotten an idea," Dudley said contemplatively. "It'd kill two birds with one stone, if we do it right."

"What's that?"

"We need some new clothes and credits," Dudley said, standing up straight as the stormtroopers passed by them without a glance. "And we also need some way of getting the Specters' attentions. What if we raided the Imperial garrison while we were here?"

"Are you serious?!" Harry hissed. But then he stopped, reconsidered, and said, "Nevermind, of course you are! Fine, what's the plan this time?"

"Follow them back to their garrison, wait for the next patrol to leave before we sneak in, take what we need, set a few bombs, and run like hell," Dudley briefly outlined, looking back at Harry with a grin.

"Gahhh, again?" Harry asked. "What is it with you and wanting to blow stuff up? First it was the Star Destroyer and now it's a stormtrooper garrison! You do realize that because it's a garrison, there's going to be a lot of them there, right?"

"Weren't you listening when I was talking to Jho?" Dudley demanded, stepping out of the alley to start following the troopers as they marched down the street. "Jhothal has a small Imperial presence. Only two squads of stormtroopers and a few low-level officers. That means there's only like 15 to 20 Imperials total, and half of them are usually out on patrol to 'maintain order' of the town."

Sighing heavily, Harry bit out, "Fine. We'll do your stupid plan."

Dudley just grinned triumphantly in reply as they continued to shadow the troopers through the small town.

* * *

 _ **Ghost**_ **, near Kothar**

Night was rapidly falling by the time, Hera finally finished the last of the repairs and recalibrations that were needed. It had been a surprisingly stressful week, but they had finally returned back to Lothal. Though the _Ghost_ was largely undamaged, it'd need time for its shield generator to fully repower from the pounding it took. This latest escapade of her cell had really taken a life of its own as its importance to the overall rebellion grew. What started as a simple 'celebration' during the parade had rapidly turned into a frantic escape from the Empire as they shuttled the Rodian, Tseebo, off-world.

Then, to complicate matters, Kanan and Ezra had to eject from the _Ghost_ while in hyperspace (which _still_ really upset and scared her when she thought about it) to throw off the Inquisitor who was somehow also tracking them through the power of the Force. When they returned, Ezra had been…out of it, not quite himself for some reason. Thankfully, Kanan had been able to give the boy some much needed training in the hours following, even taking him to a secret location with the _Phantom_ earlier today. From the sound of Ezra's excited announcement of finding a lightsaber crystal, the Lothal boy had passed Kanan's test with flying colors. And now, by the Force, it was finally all over. Hera would be lying if she said that she and the rest of the crew weren't looking forward to a few days off to rest, recover, and repair.

A sudden familiar beeping of an incoming transmission interrupted Hera's thoughts. Moving over to the console, she hit the button and a familiar cloaked figure appeared, surprising both Specters. "Fulcrum? We've just returned to Lothal after delivering the Rodian. Is something the matter?"

" _I'm afraid so_ ," Fulcrum said, voice filtered as usual. " _There's been an unexpected development on Lothal following your festivities during Empire Day_."

"What kind of development?" she asked, brow raising in surprise.

" _Apparently, your Agent Kallus captured a pair of civilians, teenaged boys, who he suspects are rebel sympathizers_ ," Fulcrum stated. " _Information has trickled out that the boys were to be shipped off-world to an unspecified facility for interrogation_."

"Were to be?" Hera repeated. "What happened?"

" _Something unexpected_ ," Fulcrum said. " _After being transferred to a Star Destroyer for transport, they had managed to escape their cells, steal a TIE fighter, inflict substantial damage upon the Destroyer, all before fleeing back to Lothal_."

"Two teenagers did all that?" Hera asked, eyes wide, awe and surprise obvious in her voice. "Alone? With no backup or anything? Very impressive! So, let me guess. Our mission is to locate and recruit these two boys, assuming they're still on Lothal."

" _Correct, Specter 2_ ," Fulcrum stated. " _However, we have been unable to determine the identities of these boys. All we have are their images that were taken by the Imperials. They are not in any Imperial record or any other records that we currently have access to_." While Fulcrum was speaking, the hologram suddenly changed to show a pair of profile images of two distinctly different boys, one dark-haired and green-eyed that seemed rather thin in stature and the other was blonde and blue-eyed who was quite obese.

"Not on record?" Hera said, surprised. Then her eyes narrowed as she started musing aloud, "That's interesting. Could they have somehow hacked into Imperial records and deleted their own files? Or maybe they originate from a world that isn't connected to the Imperial network yet."

" _Whatever the case_ ," Fulcrum said, reappearing after a moment. " _You have your mission, and must finish it with all due haste. The Empire has already sent out its own search parties and have been combing through Lothal as best they could. So far, they remain hidden, but that could change at any time_."

After a moment to collect her thoughts, Hera nodded to Fulcrum. "I understand, Fulcrum. We'll find those boys as quickly as we can."

" _Don't underestimate them, Specter 2. They may have resisted and fled the Empire, but we still know nothing about who they are or what they want. May the Force be with you_."

* * *

 **Common Room,** _ **Ghost**_

Things were a little quiet in the common room. Everyone was feeling a pretty worn out after the explosive couple of days they'd been having. Ezra sat at the holo-table with his arms propped up on it, resting his chin in his hands as he gazed off into space. Zeb was reclining back in the bolted down wicker chair that was next to the holo-table, arms nestled behind his head comfortably. Sabine sat in the corner of the room, tightening a few loose bolts and screws that connected the antenna to her helmet. Even C1-10P was more subdued than normal as he slowly trundled about the room, subdued as in he wasn't trying to actively get on people's nerves for the fun of it.

Despite herself, Sabine couldn't help but glance over at Ezra every so often. He definitely had had a roughest few days of the whole crew. Normally, she'd be confident that he'd bounce back, especially after how he'd brightened up after seeing the family image she'd managed to recover from that degraded disc. And again he'd brightened up considerably after he and Kanan had returned from their sojourn. But there was this little gnawing sensation in the pit of her stomach each time she saw his forlorn expression. Something had happened on that planetoid that neither he nor Kanan had yet shared with them (well, excluding Hera) and it was starting to annoy Sabine. But it was _only_ annoyance, because she refused to think of it as anything else. It certainly was not worry for his well-being and guilt at not having been there to help them against the Inquisitor. It annoyed her because Ezra wasn't supposed to quiet, subdued, and sad. Not the Ezra that she'd come to know and somewhat respect recently.

The quiet of the common room was broken when the door slid open for Kanan and Hera, disturbing the crew from their contemplations. As both of the rebel leaders entered, Sabine noticed that both wore tired but strangely animated expressions as they took up their own positions in the room near the table.

"So, what's the big meeting about?" Zeb asked bluntly. "Not another mission, I hope."

"Unfortunately, it is," Hera admitted. "And while it's important, it's something that can wait until tomorrow to get started on. We just wanted to get this initial debriefing out of the way before we get to bed and get started tomorrow."

"So, what is it this time?" Ezra asked, perking up visibly, much to everyone's relief.

"Believe it or not, it's a recruitment mission," Kanan stated, grinning slightly at seeing the surprised expressions of the crew. "We may be getting some new crewmates in the near-future."

"Okay, what're we dealing with this time?" Zeb asked, leaning forward heavily with a prominent frown on his face. "Dissatisfied moisture farmers? Smugglers? Bounty hunters?"

"And why are we getting this mission _now_?" Sabine asked, standing up and moving closer to the table. "Did something happen that suddenly inspired you guys to take on more crew?"

"Actually, if Fulcrum is correct," Hera said, easily ignoring Sabine's slightly pouting glare at the continued mystery surrounding Fulcrum. " _We_ are ones who inspired _them_ to rise up…indirectly, most likely."

"During the chaos after the parade," Kanan said. "Stormtroopers captured a pair of teenagers who were—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Zeb interrupted, waving his hands animatedly. " _'Teenagers'_? Are you saying we're going to be picking up more _Ezra's_? One's enough!"

" _Ugh_ , that's the _last_ thing we need," Sabine added, immediately unhappy with having to get more crew like Ezra. While the Lothal boy was charming and helpful, his persistent awkward attempts at flirting with her were very annoying. Thus, the last thing she wanted were two more guys who'd likely also try to flirt with her. The thought of such was very off-putting to her. To paraphrase Zeb, one was enough.

" _Hey_ , I'm not _that_ bad!" Ezra commented, looking and sounding rather miffed at the two of them. "Am I?"

"Yes, you are," Sabine and Zeb both bluntly said.

"Alright, that's enough," Kanan said, holding out a holo-projector as two profile images appeared. "Our mission is to locate and recruit these boys."

"But aren't they still in Imperial custody?" Ezra asked. "You did say that they were captured by stormtroopers."

"Yes, they were but they escaped," Kanan said.

"That's hardly impressive," Zeb grumbled as he rested his elbows on his knees, frowning into his hands. "We escape from Imperials every single day."

"Maybe," Hera agreed. "But even we'd have trouble managing what these two did when they escaped." Seeing the expectant looks on her crew, she smiled mischievously, "They had been transferred to a Star Destroyer for transport, but got loose somehow, stole a TIE fighter, attacked and moderately damaged the Destroyer, before returning to Lothal and disappearing."

"…Okay, that's pretty impressive," Ezra said, essentially speaking Zeb's and Sabine's own thoughts aloud.

"But the Empire must also be looking for these boys as well," Sabine said, now studying the two images much more closely. "There's no way they'd let an insult like that pass without retaliation."

"True," Hera agreed. "However, as far as we know, they still haven't found anything and it's been five days since Empire Day. Which means that by this point, the boys have most likely found a pretty secure hiding spot and a way to blend in with the populace."

"If the Empire had already found them, they'd want all of Lothal to know it," Kanan said. "Although, given how long the search is taking, they are probably starting to lessen the priority level of it."

"Which means that we can at least get a decent night's sleep before heading out and searching for them ourselves," Hera said. "And that's exactly what we're going to do, first thing in the morning. All of you, get some rest. You're going to need it tomorrow."

All of them stood at that order, more than willing to comply with it. Zeb stretched his arms as he relieved his joints explosively as the two teenagers merely started heading towards their own rooms. As Sabine was entering her cabin, she hesitated for a moment to glance back at Ezra as he and Zeb entered theirs. From what she could glimpse, he seemed a little bit better now, now that they had a mission and he had something to focus himself towards. Nodding to herself, she felt some of her tension leave after seeing that.

* * *

 **Capital City  
May 25, 3273 LY**

It was early in the morning, the sun still just passing over the horizon and blinding the world with its bright rays. He had only just finished his breakfast and taken a seat in his office to get started on reviewing several reports on the ongoing rebel activity when the Inquisitor got the call he'd been anticipating.

"Yes?" he said shortly to the aide who'd entered his office.

"My lord, we have received a report from the garrison stationed in Jhothal," the man said, holding out the datapad to the Pau'an. "Apparently, the garrison had been raided and bombed late last night."

"Jhothal?" the Inquisitor muttered to himself as he reviewed what he knew of that particular outpost. "Hm…remote, small, and lightly guarded. Not a target worth hitting for the Jedi's rebel cell."

"No, sir," the aide agreed, standing at attention. "But Agent Kallus believes this may be the work of…'those two newbies'? As he put it, sir."

The Inquisitor merely cocked his brow at that, easily translating that to meaning that Kallus thought the two escapees were responsible. "Very well. Marshall a platoon of troopers and be ready to depart in an hour's time. I'll investigate this personally."

"At once, my lord," the aide saluted smartly before turning and departing immediately.

Reaching out into the Force, the Inquisitor sought out the area where he knew Jhothal was. Through the miasma of the dark side, now that he knew where to look, he felt it much more clearly now. Yes, that new dark sider was indeed within that vicinity. A sinister grin broke out across his face, ' _Perfect_.'

* * *

 _ **Ghost**_ **, Kothar**

As was usual for most of the crew, they were up bright and early. Zeb and Ezra were having breakfast in the common room, Sabine was eating in her room, Kanan was doing his usual morning meditation just outside the _Ghost_ 's ramp, and Hera was prepping the _Ghost_ for flight.

Munching on his waffles, Ezra's mind was presently filled numerous ideas of what kind of lightsaber he wanted to build and other special traits he wanted it to have. He already had a budding idea of incorporating his slingshot into the saber. If it worked, it'd allow his weapon to be more versatile than Kanan's or even the Inquisitor's lightsabers. Of course, the design would also be heavily influenced by the type of tech he could get his hands on. Most of his friends had already supplied him with little bits and pieces that would be helpful, but it was up to him to put it all together.

Warbling from the side drew him out of his thoughts as C1-10P rolled up. "Morning, Chopper," he greeted amicably. "The _Phantom_ ready to fly?"

C1-10P just barked sharply, shaking one of his prosthetic arms at the young Padawan in a threatening manner. Though he couldn't quite understand what the old astromech was saying, his actions certainly were obvious enough.

"Hey, no need to get mad. I was just asking a question, Chopper." To this, Chopper let out a growling grumble as it leaned forward slightly, both its arms twisted down to rest on the tops of his leg struts. But then he turned away and rolled off, warbling to himself again. Unwilling to let the droid have the last 'word', Ezra called after him, "Good morning to you too, Chopper!"

Growling slightly himself in annoyance, Zeb grumbled out, "It's too early to deal with that rust bucket."

Eager to change the subject, Ezra asked, "So, what do you think these two new guys are like?"

"Well, one's definitely a pilot," Zeb said simply, stuffing another large waffle bite into his mouth. Speaking around his food carefully, he continued, "And a damn good one…if he could damage a Destroyer…as much as Hera said he did."

"No, no, I mean what do you think they're like as people?" Ezra clarified. "Think they're the cold and angry type, grim and serious? Or maybe they could be fun to be around?"

"There's no point in speculating about that, kid," Zeb pointed out. "Better to not get your hopes up about how you want them to be. So you don't make a fool of yourself when you meet them later."

"I guess," Ezra admittedly, reluctantly. "But that's no fun."

The door to the common room slid open as Hera entered, holding a communicator as she was saying, "—certain it was them, Jho?"

" _Without a doubt_ ," Ezra easily recognized the old Ithorian's voice speaking from the communicator. " _They had just shown up, drenched from the storm, and the fat one started asking a lot of questions. He was trying to be discreet about it, but I could tell he was fishing for information_."

"Information on what?" Hera asked, moving back towards the galley to get herself something to eat. Ezra and Zeb both shared questioning glances before turning their attentions to Hera as she continued her conversation, ignoring their obvious attempts at eavesdropping.

" _Well, for starters, the Imperial presence here in Jhothal_ ," Jho answered. " _How many stormtroopers are here, where their garrison is set up, how long it'd take for reinforcements to arrive, that sort of thing_."

Hera paused as she was loading her own tray of food. "Oh no… They wouldn't…would they?" Ezra and Zeb both shared another glance, the implications clear to both of them as well.

" _They most certainly did_ ," Jho said. " _It happened late last night. I'd assume that reinforcements are already on their way to rebuild and investigate_. _I figured you'd want to get here and find them yourselves first. But I'd suggest you hurry._ "

"Thank you, Jho," Hera said, grabbing her plate and hurrying back towards the cockpit. "We'll be there shortly." After ending the call, she glanced at Ezra and said, "Go get Kanan, now." Ezra didn't hesitate in jumping up and rushing for the exit.

* * *

 **Jhothal, Lothal**

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Harry asked, looking very unsure of what they were about to do. Overhead, he heard a loud rumble as a ship shaped like a diamond flew by and made to land in the nearby hangars. Though he paid the spaceship no mind since he was more focused on what he was about to commit.

The displaced Wizard was dressed in a fresh set of clothes, much to his great relief. These clothes were made up of a stormtrooper's black undershirt and pants, each possessing the Imperial logo stenciled into them at the shoulders and waist. He wore a set of officer's boots to replace his old shoes and a stormtrooper's utility belt, complete with a blaster in its sheath. Around his forearms and hands, he wore stormtroopers armor.

Despite being fully dressed in clothes that didn't stink, he felt quite uncomfortable. Not necessarily because they were several sizes too large for him (being designed and intended for adults), but because he knew that they didn't belong to him. It made him feel…odd. However, that wasn't the only reason he felt unsettled. There was something in the air. Something…cold. It hung over him and the small spaceport like a heavy mist, ominous and threatening. But he didn't tell Dudley about it, figuring he wouldn't believe him even if he did.

Dudley faced almost literally the opposite side of the problem that Harry did. The problem being that because he was so fat, a lot of the clothes didn't quite fit him as it was supposed to. It fit well enough, but not comfortably for the boy. His manner of dress was much the same getup as his cousin, but he'd also added in shin guards and a chestplate that was partially hidden under a grey jacket that he couldn't button closed even if he'd tried.

"Of course it's not a _good_ idea!" Dudley said, smiling wickedly as he glanced at the wizard. "And that's why it's going to work!"

"But why _them?!_ " Harry asked, gesturing towards the two vehicles that were surrounded by Imperial stormtroopers and officers. These two transports had just arrived mere minutes ago, no doubt the reinforcements for the remainder of the garrison they'd destroyed last night. "You do know that they're going to be looking for us."

"Well, I figured we could either steal from the Empire or from the locals," Dudley answered, lifting the binoculars he'd also stolen from the garrison. "And I also figured that a goodie-goodie two-shoes like you wouldn't want to torment those poor, pitiful, _defenseless_ farmers any more than the Imperials already have."

"…You don't need to make it seem so daft, Dudley," Harry grumbled. He could feel his unease spiking.

"Whatever, just get into position and hurry!" Dudley ordered as he continued to examine the scene. "It looks like they're nearly ready to start unloading the supplies."

Harry continued to grumble irritably as he scooted down off the building roof they'd climbed up on, squinting blearily through the afternoon sun. He walked around the building and quickly circled around the small square where the Imperials were busy. What they were doing was something that he normally wouldn't have dared do if he was back home, but circumstances demanded it of them. They needed supplies, food, equipment, clothing, weapons.

Taking up his position near the rear transport, where he could easily rush it, he took out a shiny piece of metal and flickered it towards where he knew Dudley was still hiding and watching. Unnoticed by Harry, the flicker of light had also caught the attention of someone else who'd just rounded the corner.

'… _Harry_ …' The musical voice was back, closer and _much_ louder. '… _Harry_ …'

Catching the signal, Dudley immediately opened fire with one of the blasters they still had from their escape from the Star Destroyer. His shots were spot on, but even though he struck the engine housing of the lead transport, they weren't as vulnerable as he'd hoped. So, while he did damage them somewhat, it wasn't explosive and certainly not nearly enough to cause the engine to overload and explode as he'd wanted. Still, his shots were enough to distract the stormtroopers and officers' attentions.

Forcing himself to focus, Harry saw Dudley's distraction working and took that as his signal. He rushed for the second transport, sliding up along the side and hiding, waiting patiently for the doors to open. And, sure enough, they opened to release the four troopers inside. The troopers didn't even notice him as they rushed around the corner of the transport and started firing upon where Dudley's shots were coming from. In response, Dudley started taking potshots at the troopers, not truly aiming to kill but to keep them down and hiding.

Jumping into the transport, Harry immediately closed and locked the doors before moving up into the pilot's chair. With his fear, excitement, and adrenaline pumping through him, his connection to his magic was as strong as ever, telling him which buttons to push as he started up the transport. Once coming online, he pushed forward and sent the transport rocketing backwards, slamming its stern mightily into the charred remains of the Imperial stronghold and further demolishing that part of the building.

"Heheheh, oops," he chuckled before turning the wheel and gunning the throttle. By this time, the stormtroopers had realized that the sniper was just a diversion. Some of them turned around and started opening fire on the transport. Harry ignored the laser fire as he drove down the road and made a sharp turn down a narrow alley. Taking another sharp turn onto the street beyond, he slowed the transport somewhat as he pulled up alongside the building Dudley was sniping from. The heavy thump sound told him that the Dursley boy had landed safely.

"Floor it, Skywalker!" Dudley's voice was only faintly audible through the metal and glass.

"Hang on!" he called back as he did indeed press the throttle forward completely. The transport shot forward as fast as it was capable of going, heading for the open plains at the end of the street. Dudley was in a kneeling position, still providing cover fire against the pursuing stormtroopers. As he did so, he caught sight of something he really didn't want to see. It was a glowing red blade that was in the hand of a certain black and white figure who was sprinting after them. But after only a few moments, the transport had reached exited the small town, rushing for their campsite, and the troopers had given up.

Banging on the window caught Harry's attention and he saw his cousin making a gesture for entry. Shrugging, Harry leaned over and opened the door on the other side of the cockpit. Dudley swung down from above and landed heavily in the passenger seat, once again grinning like a fool. "See, what did I tell you? Worked like a charm!"

"…Most of it did, I guess," Harry admitted reluctantly. However, he was still getting that sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I have a…bad feeling that something very bad is about to happen."

"You worry too much," Dudley declared, still somewhat drunk on adrenaline. "We left the Inquisitor in our dust."

"Inquisitor?" Harry asked, glancing sharply over Dudley. "What Inquisitor? What are you talking about?"

No sooner had he said that then did a group of shadows flew over the transport as green bolts rained down on the ground around them. Harry reflexively threw the transport into a series of dodges, but they proved unnecessary as none of the bolts struck.

" _Transport, this is TP-4413. You will surrender or be destroyed. This is your only warning,_ " a voice suddenly said from the radio.

"TIE fighters?!" Dudley cried out, unable to keep the indignant gawk off his face. "They sent _TIEs_ after us?! That's just _overkill!_ "

Seeing the trio of cone-like rocks they'd claimed as their campsite quickly approaching, Harry scowled in anger and yearning. If only he could just ditch this useless transport and get into the Interceptor! Instead, forcing his negative emotions aside, Harry turned to Dudley, "There's guns on this, right? Shoot back!"

"Right!" Dudley said, looking around quickly at the control console and Harry started dodging and jinking as best he could get the slow transport to move.

Spotting something hanging overhead, Dudley grinned as he pulled what looked like a periscope down. Immediately, a monitor lit up in front of him with a targeting scope. Grabbing the pair of joysticks, he twisted them this way and that, testing how they maneuvered and affected the spinning gun turret on the back of the transport. To his delight, he could it worked much the same as the first-person shooter games back home and was thus able to quickly adjust to the somewhat unfamiliar controls. He quickly located and opened fire on the TIEs above. To their credit, the TIE pilots had seen the turret start moving and went into a series of evasions, causing all of Dudley's shots to go wide.

Suddenly, the whole transport started shaking and jolting as loud and hard impacts struck it from behind. Growling slightly, Harry put the transport into a spinning turn around a set of stones. As he did, he looked back out the window and watched as the other Imperial transport from town swung around the rocks in pursuit. And there, standing atop the transport like some chariot-mounted Roman legionnaire, stood a dark figure with a red lightsaber ignited. Somehow, Harry suddenly understood where that sensation of ominous coldness was coming from.

'… _Harry_ …'

"Hey, Dudley," Harry said, returning his attention to driving. "I think I found your Inquisitor."

"Where?" the fat boy asked, not taking his attention from his firing.

"On the transport behind us." Swinging the cannon around, Dudley quickly found what Harry meant and opened fired. He wasn't aiming for the Inquisitor of course, but the transport he stood upon. If he could stop the transport, the Inquisitor would have a harder time getting to them.

But because he'd switched targets, that allowed the TIEs to swing back around and concentrate fire in a strafing run. Under the heavy barrage that rocked the transport, the engine block was demolished, the gun turret was blown apart, and the entire vehicle went into a careening tumble as its considerable momentum and weight worked against it. Harry and Dudley could only shout in a fear and pain as they gripped tightly onto the controls, fighting to keep themselves from getting thrown about and injured or killed. Sadly, they lost their grips quite quickly.

Finally sliding to a halt on its side, both boys let out groans of pain. Harry pushed Dudley off of him to the side as the Dursley boy cried out in pain, clutching his broken and bleeding arm.

"You okay?" Harry asked, straining as he grabbed for his blaster.

"AAHHH! MY ARM!" Dudley was yelling. "IT HURTS!"

"At least you're alive," Harry pointed out, reluctantly sympathetic for his cousin. Broken limbs were a pain he was quite familiar with and they were _very_ painful indeed. Groaning as he realized that he couldn't reach his blaster, he instead reached out and touched the windshield of the transport. With how high his adrenaline was running, his magic jumped to his command instantly, shattering the glass a mere second afterwards. "You can still walk, right, Dudley? Move it!"

Though sniffling and still agonizing, the Dursley boy awkwardly rolled himself out of the transport window and gingerly climbed to his feet. Harry came out much quicker, but was much more careful to avoid the shattered glass. As he climbed to his feet, he found himself facing a firing squad of six stormtroopers, the three TIEs hovering overhead with their guns trained down on them, and that strange white alien Inquisitor standing several meters away.

"Quite the chase you boys have given us," the Inquisitor said, speaking in the first cultured voice that Harry had heard since his arrival. Indeed, if not for the slight inflection of certain words and phrases, Harry would've fully believed that this creature had been born and raised on the British Isles. "But it ends here. You will surrender or my troopers will open fire."

"Yeah right, surrender," Dudley bit out, managing to fight through his pain and focus on their situation. "Like you were intending to spare us anyway."

The Inquisitor couldn't help quirking his brow at the fat boy's rebellious attitude. He definitely had spirit, if not much else going for him. However, he soon turned his attention to the dark-haired one. "So, it was you I've been sensing for the past few days." He couldn't help chuckling as he watched the boy reflexively flinch away from his cold presence and attention. "Tell me, boy. Why do you fight against the Empire? Someone of your unique strengths and abilities would garner a very high rank in it, did you know?"

"What would you know of my 'abilities'?" Harry asked, putting himself between Dudley and the Pau'an. ' _This one is the most dangerous. I need to find a way to get us out of this mess_.'

"Enough to know that you have had some training, but not enough training to use your skills to any significant degree," the Inquisitor stated. "Surrender, join the Empire, and I can give you the training someone of your power deserves."

Harry frowned before saying, " _You_ have nothing to teach me."

"Oh, and why is that?" the Inquisitor asked, still grinning as he held out his ignited lightsaber in an intimidating aggressive stance. He had these boys trapped and weaponless. Even if this boy was strong in the dark side, he was still largely untrained, as proven by his trying to protect the fat. Yes, the Inquisitor had every confidence that he had all advantages.

"Someone who can't even hold the loyalty of his own weapon has nothing _worth_ teaching me," Harry stated. ' _That voice, it's coming from his lightsaber. I'm sure of it!_ '

Instantly, the Inquisitor's grin was replaced by a frown. After a moment's hesitation, he glanced down at the weapon he held in his hands with a searching expression. Whatever he found caused a snarl of rage to creep across his white face as he suddenly looked up and glared at Harry, furious beyond anything he'd ever felt before.

But before the Inquisitor could act, a series of red blasts suddenly descended from the heavens. Caught by surprise, one of the TIEs was immediately destroyed while another lost it's wing strut and fell from the sky to crash violently to the ground. Immediately, all eyes shot to the sky as a large diamond-shaped ship came in for a landing. The troopers opened fire, their shots either missing or doing no visible damage. A blast from the ship's nose cannon struck the ground at the troopers' feet, blowing the whole group apart and backwards from the concussive force.

Snarling, the Inquisitor glared at the ship as he hefted up his lightsaber. Then he turned his sights on Harry and Dudley, the murderous intent obvious in his eyes, causing both boys to stumble away from the enraged dark sider. The snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting above him was the only warning the Inquisitor had before a blue blade came arcing down towards him. But the dark sider easily jumped away, his lightsaber spinning in a halo of red energy to ward off his assailant. Landing in a deep crouch in front of him, Harry could only see the man's brown hair pulled into a ponytail, a set of green armor on his right arm, and moss-green sweater. But it was truly the blue lightsaber the man held that caught Harry's attention and caused a deep sense of relief to enter the boys.

"Run! Get to the ship!" the Jedi yelled as he rose up into a defensive stance, even as the Inquisitor charged forward to engage him.

"Come on, come on, move it!" a female voice cried out from behind them. The girl was dressed in bizarrely-painted armor while wearing a rather familiar T-visor helmet. The sight of the helmet caused Harry to pause for a second, but not enough to distract him. Instead, he just took off running after Dudley, who was moving at a surprisingly fast pace, much faster than Harry had certainly ever seen him move at.

Reaching the ramp to the freighter, Harry hesitated, turning around to watch the continuing fight between the Inquisitor and the Jedi. Even though he was far from an expert on the matter, even Harry could see that the Jedi was somewhat outclassed. "Specter 5 to Specter 2, we've got the boys. Get us out of here!"

" _What about Kanan?_ " a boy's voice called over the comlink.

"Don't worry, he'll come to us!" the girl answered, aiming a pair of pistols down at the recovering stormtroopers and opening fire.

'… _Harry_ …'

Still watching the fight, Harry felt something. Something powerful rise up in him. He watched as the Inquisitor used the rapid spinning of his lightsaber to knock the Jedi's from his grasp. Then, switching the lightsaber back to single blade, he lifted it in a clear stabbing position. But the Jedi was ready, immediately kicking out and striking the Pau'an in the stomach, knocking him backwards due to surprise. Seeing his chance, the Jedi called his lightsaber back to his hand and immediately turned to sprint back towards the slowly rising freighter.

Recovering quickly, the Inquisitor snapped his lightsaber back into its spinning mode and threw it after the Jedi as the man took a mighty leap for the open bay door. Due to his awkward positioning and the weapon's rapid approach, the Jedi wouldn't be able to move or block against it! Reflexively, Harry reached out his hand in a grabbing motion. The red lightsaber seemed to freeze momentarily in midair, allowing the Jedi to safely land on the ramp, turning to look between Harry and the lightsaber.

'… _Harry_ …'

With a yank of his hand, Harry used his magic to pull the now deactivated weapon upwards and into his waiting hand. As the ramp rapidly closed, he shot the furious Inquisitor a cocky sneer while dangling the lightsaber, beckoning him to come and reclaim it.

"You're a Jedi too?" the pink armored girl asked, staring at him with an obvious surprise gawk from behind her helmet.

"No, I'm not," Harry said simply, glancing at her before he reluctantly looked up at the man who was simply looking at him with a raised brow. "But…I would like some training…if you're willing, Mr. Jedi."

* * *

( **Author's Note** ) Whooo, a _LOT_ happened in this chapter! If I don't get any reviews after all _THAT,_ I'm going to be **_VERY_** upset! I hope that this chapter answered a few of your questions. And while I admit that I wanted to get the boys to the _Ghost_ as quickly as possible, I wanted to make it seem at least somewhat more believable than just randomly having them show up and have Dudley and Harry immediately signup. That's what so many others would do.

That's why I purposely had it that Harry is quite reluctant to 'waste time' in Star Wars. He feels that his obligated to get and be involved in whatever resistance there is against Voldemort, and that obligation is and will eat him continuously while he's stuck here until/if he comes to terms with the simple fact that he can't be, for the time being at least.

For those of you who haven't already guessed, the 'voice' that Harry was hearing calling his name was coming from the Inquisitor's kyber crystals. I decided to mimic the Ahsoka novel in that regard. Harry _isn't_ a Jedi, thus I doubt he'd pass the same trials that Ezra did in order to get his crystal.

PS: In case some of you haven't noticed, I've gone back, edited, and added somewhat to the previous chapter. It should flow a bit more easily now.

 _ **PLEASE REVIEW!**_


	3. The Specters

**The New Rebels  
** By: Tellemicus Sundance  
 _#03: The Specters_

 **Common Room,** _ **Ghost**_ **  
Hyperspace, bound for Garel  
** **May 25, 3273 LY**

Things were a little…awkward in the common room. That tended to happen when strangers were aboard the _Ghost_ , but these two strangers were a fair bit more different than most of their previous passengers. Dudley was seated in the wicker chair, getting his arm wrapped up in a bandage and sling with bacta patches by Hera. Though he was trying to keep up a brave front, the Twi'lek pilot could easily see the pain in his wet eyes and expression. The fat boy was clearly unaccustomed to broken bones and the resulting pain.

' _He must've led a fairly easy life up to this point then_ ,' she guessed, trying hard to keep focused on her work. But it was a little difficult, considering both that the boy had the body odor of someone who hadn't showered in days and the belt girth of a Gamorrean. But appearance aside, he seemed like a rather likeable fellow who would've otherwise been brimming with energy and excitement, like most teenagers should've been.

Glancing off to the side for a moment, she caught sight of Kanan and Ezra talking quietly to the dark-haired boy. Kanan was examining the Inquisitor's stolen lightsaber for something, under the curious and watchful eyes of the young boys next to him. Ezra seemed to be bouncing his attention between Kanan, the lightsaber, and the boy, speaking in curious but hushed tones to both. Even with half a glance, Hera easily saw that the dark-haired boy was squinting quite badly as he tried to follow Kanan's movements or when he glanced at Ezra to answer a question. ' _He's got bad eyesight? Curious. But that must also mean that he likely isn't the pilot of the two of them then_.'

"So, what's your name, son?" Hera asked as she returned her attention to her nearly finished work. "I'm Hera. Hera Syndulla."

"D-Dudley Durs-Dursley," the boy gasped out. "He's my…cousin, Harry Potter."

"Cousin?" Hera said, smiling slightly as she arched her brow. "Forgive me, but you two look nothing alike."

"Neither did…our mothers," Dudley said, smiling slightly back at her. "His was a redhead, mine is a brunette."

Finishing her bandage, she sat back in her seat next to the holo-table. "So, what's your story? How'd you end up getting into a fight with the Empire and that Inquisitor?"

"Heheh," Dudley chuckled painfully. "You probably…wouldn't believe our origin story. But…we got taken from our homeworld and, next thing we know, we were caught up in the chaos of Empire Day and those fools thought we were rebels! Kinda forced our hand."

"I see," Hera said, her mind working hard to try and decipher the tantalizing clues the boy was dropping. Sadly, there still wasn't enough information yet.

"So, why'd you take the Inquisitor's lightsaber?" Kanan asked Harry after finishing his examination of the strange weapon. That was something that he'd been yearning to do since the first time he'd fought against the Inquisitor, to see how the inner functions of it worked. And while he didn't have time for a more thorough and in-depth check, just looking it over was enough to answer several pressing questions he'd had.

"I…uh…" the boy said, hesitating as he glanced between Kanan and the weapon. After a moment, he hung from his belt by a clip it had. "You probably won't believe me."

"Try me," Kanan offer, giving an easy smile to try and relax the boy.

"Well, I…" Taking a breath and visibly collecting his courage, he finally said, "I could… _hear_ it calling to me. Like it was _begging_ me to take it."

Kanan raised his brow at that. But before he could answer, Ezra spoke up, "Hey, that sounds like the time I found Kanan's lightsaber several months ago! See, I told you it wanted me to take it."

"Yes, but that was a different situation," Kanan pointed out in exasperation. "Besides, you have your own lightsaber to steal now."

"Steal?" Harry asked, squinting between the two. "You mean you tried to _steal_ a _Jedi's_ lightsaber?"

"Hey, I didn't _know_ he was a Jedi at the time!" Ezra defended, pouting slightly as Kanan shot a smirk at his Padawan.

"So, you want training to be a Jedi?" Kanan said. "Why?"

"Because my world is in danger and I want to help in any way I can," he answered.

"You'll have to be more specific than that," Kanan said. "In case you didn't notice, all of the galaxy is in danger from Imperial domination and tyranny."

"I know," Harry said quickly. "I know. But my world is…excluded from that. We have our own Dark Lord to worry about."

"A Dark Lord?" Ezra said, trying his best to keep from chuckling, although his humor did carry over into his voice. "Well, that's not an ominous title at all!"

Harry sent a sharp glare at the boy. "This isn't a _laughing matter_! The man maybe a lunatic, but he's a _powerful_ and _dangerous_ lunatic! To make matters worse, he's got followers who are warping the Ministry to do his bidding!"

"That sounds familiar," Kanan muttered, frowning. He couldn't sense any deception from the boy. With how much the boy was subconsciously expressing himself in the Force, Kanan would've had to have been a non-Force sensitive to not have known the boy was telling the truth. "But it also sounds like a long and complicated story. Why don't we sit down and discuss things with your friend over there now that Hera's done bandaging him?"

"Good idea," Harry acknowledged, nodding to the man as he moved towards his cousin, Kanan and Ezra following behind him.

Seeing the Jedi approaching, Zeb moved over from where he'd been leaning against the wall, watching the two boys closely with a suspicious gaze. As he drew nearer, the boys caught a whiff his scent and recoiled slightly in disgust. But where Harry was tactful to keep his opinion to himself, Dudley couldn't help bringing his hand to his nose and he said, "Ugh, _that's_ a peculiar smell. Smells like a wet dog that went rolling in a pile of vomit!" Looking over at Ezra, he asked, "How do you guys put up with that?!"

"You get used to it after a while," Ezra admitted, looking away from Zeb as he fought a losing battle to keep from laughing.

"Oh really?" Zeb interrupted, glaring angrily at the fat boy. He may not have known what a 'dog' was but he recognized an insult when he heard one. "Like you're one to talk! You stink even _worse_ than _I_ do!"

"Imperial captivity," Dudley shot back. "They kept us imprisoned and we haven't exactly have a chance to shower after we escaped. What's _your_ excuse, big guy?"

Snarling loudly, Zeb clasped his hands together in a threatening manner as he moved forward. "Maybe you'd like to a more personal examination of this smell?!"

"You'd really beat up an injured kid who has no way of defending himself?" Dudley asked, brow cocking as a smirk crossed his face. "Man, you're pretty childish, aren't you?"

"Alright, that's enough," Hera spoke up, moving between them and pushing Zeb away with a firm hand. Around them, the other members of the _Ghost_ and even Harry were fighting back chuckles and smiles at seeing the largest of them being talked down to by Dudley. "No more provoking and poking fun at each other's stink. Why don't you two share with us your story?"

Moving over to Dudley, Harry took a seat on the floor next to him, looking away from the looks he got from the crew for that. But none of them made a remark on it as they too took seats with expectant looks on their faces.

"Alright, where to start?" Dudley said, glancing over at Harry. "How much did you tell them?"

"I mentioned the Dark Lord," Harry said shortly.

"Oh? That's surprising," Dudley said, looking very surprised. "I thought such a thing would've been _against the law_ , Potter."

"Well, they're not _here_ to _care_ , are they?" Harry pointed out. "And what do _you_ care? You're not the one who'll get in _trouble_ for it."

"True," Dudley agreed, grinning widely down at him. "So, just an overview of our world and cultures then?"

"They would've _believe_ us if we told them the _whole truth_ now, would they?" Harry asked, looking pointedly over at them. All of them were wearing frowns of varying depths, clearly not enjoying not knowing the context of their conversation. "I mean, even _we_ wouldn't believe the whole story if we weren't caught in the middle of it."

"I guess," Dudley sighed, deflating somewhat before perking up again. "Oh well, I guess it'll be more fun this way anyway."

"How is it you can say so much and yet say so little like that?" Ezra couldn't help asking.

"A little context would be appreciated," Sabine agreed, glaring dangerously between them

"Alright, alright!" Dudley said, holding up his hands in a placating manner. "We're getting to it. Just be patient, pretty lady!"

"Don't call me that," Sabine muttered, ignoring the glare that Ezra was now sending Dudley for daring to flirt with her. "Get on with it!"

"Alright, Harry and I come from a world called 'Earth' and, as far as we can tell, it hasn't yet been discovered by your Empire," Dudley said, easily taking up the lead as storyteller. "And I doubt we're going to be getting back to it any time soon. We don't know the coordinates to it, or even in which part of the galaxy it's even located in."

"Plus, we probably won't be getting rescue parties coming to look for us," Harry added in before any of the crew could voice any objections. "If I remember right, our world hasn't even made past our own moon in terms of space travel."

"Sounds like a primitive world," Hera commented, frowning. Pieces of information now starting to settle into a more complete image for her. "I'm guessing your world, this 'Earth', is divided among various nations and factions as some sort, fighting over land rights, minerals, or technological superiority?"

"More or less," Dudley agreed, nodding. "We come a relatively small but high-tech nation called England. But what most people on our world don't know is that there's a secret society that lives alongside it, the _Wizarding_ World." Seeing their disbelieving faces, he laughed out bitterly, "Believe me, it's as ridiculous as it sounds!"

"Shut up, Dudley," Harry bit out. "You don't know anything about the Wizarding World and, frankly, you don't care enough about it to!"

"Of course I don't!" Dudley shot back. "They're a bunch of self-righteous _pricks_ using their _magic_ to _brainwash_ and _torment_ people who _aren't_ in their _precious_ world!"

"You can't compare the _worst of us_ as the society as a whole," Harry said, glaring at Dudley. Then he looked down morosely. "Although, I agree that a lot more of them are self-righteous than they should be."

"I take it that Harry is a member of this 'secret society' and Dudley isn't?" Kanan asked, glancing between the two. "And what is magic?"

"Eh, that's a conversation for another time," Dudley cut in before Harry could answer. "From what I've seen, I guess you could say that _magic_ is their way of using the Force?"

"Close enough," Harry muttered, looking down at the floor determinedly.

"Brainwashing people?" Sabine asked, her eyes narrowed dangerously as she eyed Harry. "What does that mean?"

"One of the most important laws of my world is secrecy," Harry said calmly. "This is due to my people, Wizards and Witches, getting into a war and conflicts with nonmagical people multiple times in centuries past. They decided that the best way to live peacefully was for them to remove themselves from the nonmagical world entirely. This means that they routinely erase or modify the memories of nonmagicals who accidentally stumble upon our little enclaves."

"Meaning they brainwash people into believing they didn't see acts of magic which could potentially expose the precious Wizarding World," Dudley said bluntly.

"If that's true, then how do you know about it?" Kanan asked, looking pointedly at Dudley.

"I'm in the gray area of the law," Dudley said, sneering. "I might not have magic, but I'm related to a Wizard." He beckoned down towards Harry, who just shrugged uncaringly.

"Okay, then how did you end up on Lothal?" Sabine asked. Both boys hesitated, looking at one another, before shrugging.

"I don't really know," Harry said, frowning angrily. "One moment we were in Dudley's room, talking about something unimportant and the next we find ourselves in a back alley watching the parade."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," Harry said shortly, matching her challenging glare.

After a long, tense moment, Kanan spoke up, "I guess it doesn't matter in the end just _how_ they got here. The question now is: what are you two planning to do now?"

"The Empire has listed you as rebels and enemies of the state now," Hera said. "They'll be looking for you wherever you go."

"Then it's good thing we weren't planning on hiding!" Dudley said, grinning over at the Twi'lek. "That Kallus guy who tried to interrogate us mentioned you guys, or I assume it was you. He seemed to think we were trying to get your attention. So we could join you."

"And were you?" Hera asked, fighting to keep a knowing smile off her face.

"Not at first," Dudley admitted. "At that time, we were just trying to get our feet under us. It was after we escaped that we decided to try. But we didn't know where you were, so we decided to cause a ruckus to get the Imperials' attentions. I thought it might in turn get your attentions if we attracted Imperials. Although, the Inquisitor was a surprise. I would've thought that we would've been beneath the attention as someone like him. Bloody pale-faced fucker!"

Despite his dislike of the fat boy for the insults, Zeb found himself chuckling merrily at that comment. "Careful, kid. I might start liking you if you keep up that attitude."

"So, where are we going?" Harry asked, looking up at Hera, who he assumed was the leader, given the subtle deference the others gave her.

"A planet called Garel," Hera said easily. "Dudley needs medical attention, and so do you."

"Why?"

"Do you _like_ being near-sighted?" Hera asked rhetorically.

Harry blinked. "I…uh…what? You guys can fix my eyesight?!"

"Of course," Hera said, nodding. "It's a very simple and cheap procedure."

"See, Harry!" Dudley said, speaking over whatever his cousin might've said. "I _told you_ joining these guys would've been for the best! They're already helping us!"

"So, you actually want to join our little family?" Kanan asked, glancing between them. Dudley's face showed his utter acceptance and yearning. Harry looked reluctant and uncertain, but said nothing against the idea. "Okay then, from now on Harry shall be Specter 7 and Dudley will be Specter 8."

After that, the meeting broke up as the various individuals started mingling, getting to know their new members. Although, Harry was quick to ask for a chance to take a shower and to freshen up. It took a little while with a little awkward couching from Ezra, who seemed surprised by Harry's utter lack of knowledge of how to operate even the most basic of appliances in the refresher. It was only afterwards when he had to chance to sit down and think that Ezra began to believe the boys' claims that they were from such a primitive world. Dudley was quick to follow Harry's lead after he stepped out, no longer smelling like he hadn't bathed in a week's time.

* * *

 **Hospital, Garel City, Garel**

After the _Ghost_ had landed, the Specters had been broken up to run little but necessary errands. Sabine, Zeb, and Ezra went to the market to purchase needed supplies like food, fuel, explosive chemicals and paints, replacement tools and equipment, unarmed detonators and blaster packs, and other such miscellaneous stuff. C1-10P remained with the _Ghost_ , running the usual post-flight diagnostic and performing basic maintenance where needed. Hera had disappeared into the city to get into contact with Fulcrum and give an update on their recruitment mission. Kanan had escorted the boys to the hospital where they were easily admitted in to have their procedures, along with basic medical checkups.

Kanan was now standing out in the waiting room, settling himself into a light meditation to ease his impatience. In doing, he was given a chance to finally think deeply about the story the boys had told him and his crew. While much of their story was…odd, he knew that tended to happen when primitive cultures and people were suddenly able to interact with the larger galaxy. Indeed, culture clash was a common thing in the galaxy. Most sentients tended to be pretty open-minded, unless the root of the problem or misunderstanding was in direct contrast of their own beliefs, usually involving murder, romance, and money. Still, the idea of their world being an as-yet-uncharted one would definitely help explain some of the subtle nuances that the boys had in their mannerisms and speech patterns.

But what he was more focusing on was the story they told of their cultures, specifically of this 'Wizarding World' and the 'nonmagical world'. Most ancient and/or primitive galactic cultures often had initially mistook the Force to be just simple magic. And, indeed, there were many cultures that still remained that referred to the Force in different names and with different understandings and usages. The fact that these boys came from a world that had its own 'magical tradition' was hardly surprising. In fact, it would've been more surprising if they _didn't_ have such a culture or some type of history with it.

However, what was really piquing Kanan's interest was the subtle hints the boys had made about this world that they probably didn't even realize they were making. Certain keywords like 'Ministry', 'laws', and 'enclaves'. Words like that could only really be used if there was a substantial number of these 'Witches' and 'Wizards' around to be necessary. The Force sensitive population on their world must be unusually high. In the common galaxy, any average world would generally only have about .0001% of its population being Force sensitive, usually equating to about 1 person for every 10,000. So, if these boys' planet had enough Force sensitives to have their own little 'world,' that would mean that this planet must have upwards of at least a couple tens of thousands! More than the Jedi Order at its peak!

And then there was the darker side of their story, at least for Harry and in more ways than one. The whole concept of his culture being discreetly assaulted and conquered by a 'dark lord' struck a little too close to home for Kanan. That story reminded him heavily of the Clone Wars, Emperor Palpatine, and inevitably Order 66. What was even more startlingly similar was the apparent fact that the officials in charge of this Wizarding world didn't seem to acknowledge the existence of this dark lord. Given what little he already knew about the boy, Kanan knew that Potter must've already had several encounters with this dark lord but it was only recently that he'd truly come into power. The exact reasoning for all this was still unknown to him, but he was confident he would get the full story in due time. Yet Kanan could already sense that the boy was destined to confront that dark lord again, that his destiny was inexplicably intertwined with his hated foe. A fact that the boy was also well aware of as well.

But that was only half of the problem that Kanan had with this whole story. While he didn't know their exact practices, Kanan could state with absolute certainty that Harry's people, these Wizards, were staunch users of the Dark Side. The boy himself was positively steeped in the Dark Side of the Force. It clung to him like a heavy scent. But unlike with the Inquisitor and his Sith masters, Harry didn't possess a shred of evil within him. He expressed his emotions, he reveled in them even. But he didn't seem to connect them to the Dark Side, use them to boost his power. He wasn't 'cold' like death frozen over. If the Light Side was the power of life, the Dark Side was equitable to death. But Harry and his darkness felt…alive, vibrant. And that was a very strange thing for the Jedi to feel of anything even remotely connected to the Dark Side. A paradox that he'd never thought could possibly exist before he'd met this boy an hour earlier.

"How're they doing?" Hera asked quietly as she moved to stand beside him, jolting him from his thoughts and meditation.

Checking his chrono quickly, he smiled slightly as he said, "Well, Harry should be done any minute now. His was only supposed to last half an hour."

"And Dudley?" Hera pressed.

Kanan paused slightly as he tried to think of a way to tactfully tell the truth. "Well, the doctors said they could heal his arm in a few hours easily enough. But they also…strongly recommended they provide a few other necessary medical services to help bring the kid back to better health."

"They're gonna do a liposuction on him?" Hera said more than asked. At Kanan's nod, she let out a low sigh of irritation. "I was afraid of that. We don't have the necessary credits for that type of operation…Well, we do, but we'll be borderline broke for the next few weeks!"

"Don't worry, Hera," Kanan said in a soothing voice, resting his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "We'll get by and we'll make it work, one way or another. We always do. Plus, we'll have two new helping hands around."

"Yes," the Twi'lek pilot agreed slowly. "Although, having met them now and hearing their story, I'm starting to wonder if we jumped the gun a little by making them Specters so easily. If they're really from such a primitive world, they probably don't have much to offer in terms of mechanical, computer, or other such skills."

"Well, we do know three things they can offer to our group as a whole," Kanan pointed out. "One of them is definitely a skilled and natural pilot, able to fly a TIE _without prior training_. They were to contrive a plan to _escape from a Star Destroyer_ with no one the wiser until it was too late. And one of them is a _Force sensitive_ with probably rather…interesting abilities."

Hera couldn't help quirking her brow at that. "Does that mean you really plan on training him? I thought you said it was forbidden for Jedi to train more than _one_ Padawan at a time."

"I'm trying to keep an open mind here," Kanan admitted with a pleasant but somewhat fake grin. Indeed, he had a _**lot**_ of hesitation about taking Harry on as a second Padawan. To say nothing of his own incomplete training and lackluster efforts to train Ezra, the Potter boy just didn't have the disposition to be a Jedi as he _presently_ was. Still… "But it'd be better I teach him a few lessons and tricks I know than to let him experiment on his own _unsupervised_. That tends to end in tragedy, in some form."

Hera nodded minutely at that. "What're your thoughts on their story?"

"Well, they were telling the truth for the most part," Kanan said with confidence. "They wore their emotions on their sleeves. I would have to be blind to not notice any lies or deception like that. But they were being totally truthful with at least that much."

"So, you have the same opinion," Hera said, nodding. "I wonder what it is that they're trying to hide from us though."

"Yeah, that part was a little surprising and kinda insulting," Kanan admitted. At the time, he'd hidden how upset he was. But now, looking back on it, he found that it was actually kind of amusing. The boys had something to hide but knew they couldn't hide it entirely from the crew, so they didn't even bother. They did everything but tell them what it was. If that was a prank of some kind, they definitely pulled it off quite well. "Still, I didn't sense any malice or darkness from them. Whatever it is that they're hiding from us must be pretty… _big_ if they think we wouldn't believe them."

"I probably would've said 'weird' but I agree," Hera said, nodding again.

That was when the doors opened and Harry stepped through, guided by a medical droid. The reason for the guidance was because his eyes were presently covered by a thick piece of cloth that was securely tied around his head, blocking out any light that might've potentially harmed his sensitive eyes. Dressed in a simple hospital gown and carrying his clothes in one hand, Harry kept his other firmly clasping the droid's shoulder as they turned and approached Kanan and Hera.

"You are this boy's guardian?" the droid asked calmly.

"Looks like it," Kanan said, smiling in greeting Harry. "How you feeling, kid?"

"I can't feel my eyes," Harry said, facing in Kanan's direction blindly. "It's…weird."

"How long will the blindfold have to remain in place?" Hera asked the droid as Kanan took Harry's hand and guided him towards a private area to get redressed.

"Approximately four to six hours," the droid answered, turning to face her. "The numbness of his eyes will dissipate by then. When that happens, I suggest waiting another half hour before removing the bandages. Please do so in an area with low-light settings for an hour to give his eyes a chance to adjust and further heal. By then, he should be able to function at full capacity."

"I see, thank you," Hera said, bowing her head slightly in acknowledgement. The droid awkwardly mimicked the gesture before departing without another word. Glancing back towards where the boys disappeared to, Hera let out a sigh and took a seat in a nearby chair and dug out a datapad to amuse herself with.

After a few minutes, Kanan and a freshly-redressed Harry entered the waiting room. "I figured I could take Harry here back to the ship and discuss his world and training some more, to get a better picture of what I'll be dealing with. You okay with waiting here for Dudley?" Kanan asked.

"Sure, it's no problem," Hera said, waving them off. "This gives me time to try and find a way to manage our budget at least."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Harry said, earning both adults' attentions. "Um, do you guys know how Dudley and I escaped?"

"You stole a…ship if I remember right," Kanan said quietly.

"Yeah," Harry acknowledged. "Well, turns out that the ship we took was…pretty high-tech and quite new, if Dudley's guess was right. Anyway, after we landed, we decided that we wanted to sell it but we haven't a chance to yet. I figured that, well…"

"We could use the money from selling it to help pay for the bill," Hera finished, a soft smile gracing her face. "That's very kind of you, Harry."

"So is you guys helping us with this stuff," Harry pointed out, a slight smile of his own pulling at his somewhat numbed face.

"Well, that's a load off our shoulders," Kanan said before once again pulling Harry slightly. "Come on, kid. We've got a lot to talk about."

* * *

 **Jalath, Lothal  
Common room, **_**Ghost**_ **  
** **May 26, 3273 LY**

"Well, don't you clean up nicely," Zeb said as he entered the room and caught his first glimpse of the new Dudley.

Dudley Dursley had gone through quite the transformation since the last time the large Lasat had seen him. Gone was the peach-skinned, tusk-less, blonde Gamorrean that they had picked up yesterday. Now he looked like just another teenage human. Dudley had had to spend the night in a bacta tank to recover from both his broken arm, the liposuction, and the minor skin grafts the doctors had to make in response to all the fat he lost. While the boy was still big and bulky, it was now due to his own size and body frame rather than his girth.

Once again dressed in the stolen Imperial clothes and armor pieces, which certainly were much more comfortable to wear now, Dudley looked up at Zeb with a grin, "Well, I had a pretty lady I wanted to impress. I think she approved when she saw the new me."

Catching the angry pouting glare that Ezra was now sending at Dudley, Zeb just chuckled loudly, "Maybe, kid. But I think she's a _bit_ out of your league. You don't strike me as the type who could handle a fighter like her."

"Like who?" Dudley asked, his grin still present.

"Sabine, of course," Zeb said.

" _Ohhh_ , her," Dudley said, his eyes lighting up as though he'd just had an idea. Then his grin changed into something a bit more…cheeky. "I don't know, she seems a little too _feisty_ for me. I get the feeling she'd sooner throw me to the floor than touch me. Nah, I was talking about Hera."

Zeb, who had been taking a drink, suddenly sputtered and choked slightly, some of the fluid going down the wrong pipe. He quickly developed some loud coughing as he beat his chest, trying to correct the problem. Ezra wasn't that far behind him, his previously angry glare now replaced with a dumbfounded gawk.

"Wh-Wh-WHAT?!" Ezra couldn't help sputtering out in disbelief. "Hera?! Are you serious?!"

"Sure I am, why wouldn't I be?" Dudley asked with a perfect face of innocent confusion. But then he ruined it by whistling lowly as he got a dreamy and somewhat lecherous expression. "Have you _seen_ her? Maybe not quite as well-endowed as some others, but you have to wonder just what she's hiding under that jumpsuit! Heheheheheh!"

"Okay, this conversation is over!" Zeb barked, looking equal parts disgusted and embarrassed.

"I second that motion!" Ezra cried out, leaping to his feet and hurrying out of the room. While it was nice to have more people around who were closer to his age, he didn't think he could handle it if they were a bunch of perverted freaks like that! Yes, he was a teenager in the midst of a rather sexually-active period of his life and he wasn't blind to the fact that Hera was a very beautiful woman, no matter how much she may have tried to hide it, but he didn't want to listen people talking about his new mother-figure like that! He had been raised to be much more respectful towards women than that!

After leaving the common room, Ezra took a moment to catch his breath in the hallway. As he did, he felt something. A tugging sensation that he now understood was the Force, calling to him, beckoning him elsewhere. Following the call faithfully, Ezra took a few steps before pausing again and turning towards Kanan's room. Setting his hand on the door, he could feel the pull of the Force much more strongly. Opening the door, he found a curious sight. Kanan and the other new kid, Harry Potter, were kneeling down on the floor in obvious meditation, resting in between the two was the Inquisitor's former lightsaber.

Though he wasn't that enthusiastic about that part of Jedi training, Ezra would admit that meditation could be pretty relaxing after times of great stress. ' _Considering what Dudley just made me go through, some meditation would actually be pretty great right now_ ,' he realized, closing the door, moving forward and settling down into a kneel next to the two. With a quiet sigh, he relaxed and reached out for the Force as Kanan had taught him.

As he did so, Ezra found himself awash in the energies of the universe. But more so than that, he found himself in the presence of something he'd never felt before and was wholly unprepared for. The dark presence he felt seated next to him was nothing like what he felt from the Inquisitor. Where the Inquisitor was cold and evil, this presence felt warm, welcoming even, expressive in its fears, anger, joy, and a certain level of serenity that somehow united all of the convulsing emotions into a whole. It was nothing like the calm and tranquil serenity Kanan felt like whenever he was deep in meditation, but it still felt…kind, almost benign.

"Remember, Harry," Kanan's voice was like a whisper in the wind, soft and calming. "You are connecting to the crystals, as you are the Force. Don't try to control it. Let what will be happen as it will."

"Yes, sir," Harry murmured back, just as calmly.

A few moments later, soft clicking and metallic noises began echoing through the room. But Ezra resolutely kept his eyes closed as he concentrated on his meditation. This continued for nearly twenty minutes, the noises becoming soothing in their repetitions. As they were doing so, Ezra's mind fluttered back around to his thoughts on his family and his hopes for his new 'brothers' that had joined. He had found himself feeling unusually jealous about Harry's possible inclusion in his Jedi training time with Kanan. But even after spending only ten minutes with the boy, Ezra had come to see that Harry was a naturally likeable and nice guy, so his jealousy had somewhat dissipated. Dudley was perhaps as opposite of Harry in disposition as he was in looks, but also a lot more fun to be around…if he would stop subtly trying to flirt with Sabine that is! Granted, it was only the one time, but Ezra still didn't like it.

A sudden clatter of metal on the floor jolted Ezra out of his thoughts, his eyes opening reflexively. There, floating in midair between all three of them, was the Inquisitor's now somewhat modified lightsaber. It now lacked the circular ring-guard that also allowed the blades to spin. Those and the mechanical pieces that operated them were cause of the noise that awoke him, now uselessly discarded. Harry hesitantly reached out and grabbed his new lightsaber, holding it carefully as though he were afraid he might accidently set it off.

"What do you think?" Kanan asked, smiling slightly as he watched his new student eye the device carefully.

"It feels…familiar, but also odd?" Harry said, sounding unsure.

"That's probably because of your lack of familiarity with using the Force this way," Kanan offered, having already heard a lot from Harry about how a Wizard used a wand as a focus to control his magic. An archaic concept that had long since been abandoned throughout much of the galaxy, but apparently not on his world. "Don't worry, with time and training, you'll get used to it." Beckoning towards the lightsaber, he said, "Let's see what you got?"

Though still reluctant, Harry nodded and held out the lightsaber level with the ground. Pressing the small red button on the side with his thumb, an orange blade ignited from the end. Pressing the other red button down by his pinky, a second orange blade sprung to life. Ezra and Kanan both raised their brows at the unusual color, but didn't comment on it. Harry meanwhile looked at his lightsaber with a look of surprise. "It feels…a lot _heavier_ than you or that Inquisitor made it seem like."

"That because the crystals haven't quite yet harmonized with you," the Jedi stated. "You do that by training, both physically and mentally. Your thoughts become actions and the crystals will connect with that. In time, you might come to feel more for this weapon than you would your own arm." Looking over at Ezra, Kanan said, "And once my other Padawan finally finishes his own lightsaber, you'll have someone closer to your own level to train with."

Retracting the blades, Harry looked over at Ezra, who met his gaze with an uncertain smile. Harry answered with his own slight smile before he set the lightsaber aside and started collecting the debris. Looking up suddenly, he asked, "Do you think you'll need any of this stuff for your own lightsaber, Ezra?"

Though surprised, Ezra shook his head. "I've already got a lot of the pieces I need. I just need to figure out a way to make it function as I want it to. Thanks, though."

* * *

 **Near Jhothal**

Piloting the _Phantom_ , Hera followed the boys' directions, looking for a rather distinctive set of a trio of large stones. It was where the boys had hidden their stolen TIE. And if they were lucky, the Empire hadn't noticed it the other day when they were in the area. Behind her, Sabine was seated, leaning somewhat on her helmet which she was carrying on her lap.

"Any idea of how we're going to sell this TIE?" Sabine asked finally. "Aside from hydrogen, TIE fighters are some of the plentiful ships in the galaxy. Any moisture farmer off the street could buy one for only thousand credits. Who could be we possibly sell it to?"

"Well, there is Vizago," Hera commented, squinting as she saw something up ahead. Those rocks looked a little too close together. Was that it?

"Him again?" Sabine asked with disgust. "Sooner or later, that pirate is gonna turn on us, Hera. You know he will."

"Yes, but only when we stop being profitable to him," she said, a smile creeping across her face as, yes, that was indeed the trio of rocks the boys mentioned. "Get ready, Sabine. We're almost there."

Interested, the Mandalorian girl stood up and headed up to catch a glimpse. As they drew closer, both girls' eyes widened as they spotted a distinctly different ship than the one they'd been expecting to find. "Okaaay, _that's_ not a TIE fighter," Hera muttered, contemplatively. "So, some new prototype model?"

"I recognize that ship!" Sabine uttered, surprise in her voice. "It was still just a blueprint concept when I was at the academy, but I know that ship! It's a TIE Interceptor! Designed to be faster, more maneuverable, and even more heavily armed than a TIE fighter. _No wonder_ those kids were able to escape from a Star Destroyer!"

Finally landing the shuttle, Hera quickly powered it down while Sabine rushed out to inspect the new starfighter. By the time, Hera had finished and closed the hatch to the _Phantom_ , Sabine had already climbed the Interceptor's pod and was fiddling with the controls and computers. "How's it looking, Sabine?"

"The kids must've tried to put some kind of lock on the computer startup but I should be—there!" Instantly following, the interior lights lit up and Sabine was scrolling through the data. Whistling lowly, she called out, "The computer says that this is a preproduction prototype model! These kinds of ships are _rare_ and only gifted to the _best_ of pilots and ship captains! Hera, this fighter might be worth _easily_ 20,000 credits on the black market!"

" _20,000?!_ " Hera repeated, utterly surprised. "Are you sure?!"

"Fairly sure," Sabine admitted. "With the market, you can never be sure. But there is a strong likelihood! Especially since it's in excellent condition."

Hera needed no further prompting to hurry back to the _Phantom_ and punch in Vizago's number. With a starfighter like that, she knew he'd pay handsomely for it with very few questions asked. As she waited for the connection to form, a soft smile crossed her face as she realized that, yes, maybe it was the right call to make those two boys new Specters after all.

* * *

( **Author's Note** ) Not as long as the previous two chapters, for which I apologize. But my muse kinda withered and died towards the end of this chapter. I guess that's partly because I don't know how much more original material I want to put in before returning back to the canon plotline. Some input in that regard would be helpful.

Also, to avoid the monotony of repetition, I decided to skip over the whole 'in-depth story time' of both Harry telling Kanan and Ezra about the Wizarding World and its intricacies (like needing wands and the different branches of magic), as well as Kanan giving Harry his first lesson in meditating on the Force. Since I know some of you are going to complain or point out the obvious, that thing with Harry 'modifying' the lightsaber had little to do with him needing to know how it works. All he did was take an already assembled weapon and remove the pieces that he didn't want/need with the Force and the crystals inside giving him a little helping hand in the matter. Finally, the reason for the orange color of his blades is simple: while he _isn't_ a pure dark sider in the traditional sense (red), he _does_ still use it quite frequently. Hence, he's close to the dark side but isn't consumed by it: orange. Simple. If you don't like any of these explanations...oh well.


	4. The Raxus Errand

**.**

 **The New Rebels  
** By: Tellemicus Sundance  
 _#04: The Raxus Errand_

 **Jalath, Lothal  
** **June 5, 3273 LY**

"Ooff!" With a solid thump, a body hit the dirt hard. The impact knocked the breath from his lungs, leaving him heaving frantically afterwards. Squinting against the blinding morning sunlight as the sun slowly rose over the horizon, the downed figure painful rolled over onto his hands and knees.

"Get up, you loth-rat," Sabine growled, glaring slightly at the slowly recovering form of Dudley Dursley. "How are you supposed to learn anything if you spend all day in the dirt?"

Pushing himself upwards shakily, his chest still heaving in an effort to properly refill it with air again, Dudley's body was stinging and throbbing from burning muscles. His body twitching from the floundering remnants of adrenaline that was now rapidly fading from his bloodstream, Dudley pushed himself back to his feet and weakly raised his arms into his basic Boxing defense stance. Seeing her student finally ready for more, the girl nodded in partial acknowledge before setting herself up into a stance of her Mandalorian fighting style.

Charging forward, Sabine leapt up and kicked at Dudley's chest. With one hand guarding his face, he used his other to block against the girl's attack. The force of the kick was remarkable, throwing his arm up and to the side while knocking his balance off kilter. Seeing the opening, Sabine immediately swung her other leg and smacked him in the chest fully. But even as the wind was driven from him and pain erupted through his chest, Dudley managed to reach forward with his hand that had been guarding his face and grabbed ahold of her ankle. Without wasting time for a grin, he immediately turned his whole body as he swung her bodily over his head towards the ground behind him.

But Sabine far from a novice and didn't panic. Instead, as she rushed for the ground, she threw her hands up over her head and, with truly impressive upper body strength, managed to catch and stop her fall, preventing her from slamming into the ground and knocking her senseless for a few moments.

Visibly stunned by her sheer strength and flexibility, Dudley wasted precious seconds gawking at her. This cost him dearly as her free foot came down and smacked into his shoulder, jostling him into releasing her and sending jolts of pain down his arm. As he recoiled away, cradling his arm and shoulder, Sabine easily snapped back up to her feet with her hands back up in the original guard positions.

"You really…don't pull your…punches, do ya?" Dudley grunted out, torn between glaring at her and still wanting to gawk in awe.

"Of course not," the fierce girl declared. "Pain is an excellent motivator to improve oneself as quickly as possible."

"I guess," Dudley admitted, frowning as he tried to reset his own stance. "But only in small doses… Too much too soon will just send me back to the hospital again and again."

"Then you'll just have to get stronger _faster_ ," Sabine said, not at all moved by his plea. "Now, again!"

As Dudley was continuing his basic combat training, off to the other side of the parked _Ghost_ there was another training session taking place. This one was literally set the air abuzz with the static clashes of charged energy blades. Electric blue clashed with neon orange through a set of basic blocks and maneuvers. The pair of boys both wore small grins of excitement as they finished their kata and reset themselves in their starting stances. Ezra moved first, his blade coming down in an overhead chop which Harry easily caught and deflected to the side. In return, he gave a slash across the Padawan's torso, which was deflected to the side as Ezra brought his saber swinging back over from the side. It was a calm, slow practice, with the boys moving at half speed so they could more easily adjust to the strange nuances of their new weapons.

"Are you sure you've never used a saber or sword before?" Ezra asked as he casually blocked a probing stab from Harry.

"Only _once_ and it was against a monster-sized serpent," Harry answered easily as he deflected a retaliatory stab from Ezra. "Never against an _actual_ person. My people don't believe in swordsmanship. That was a favorite of the nonmagical people, thus my people thought it was _beneath_ them."

"Sounds like they were all real idiots," Ezra commented, realizing too late just how his partner might've taken it. "Not that I'm saying _you're_ an idiot! I mean, your _people_ in general—NO! I don't—!" As he started babbling, his attention on their training vanished, forgetting the next sequence of the kata as he held up his hands in an awkward placating manner.

"Relax," Harry cut in firmly, smiling somewhat to ease Ezra's worries. "I know what you meant. And I even agree with you, for the most part."

Letting out a sigh as he realized his new friend and crewmate hadn't taken offense, Ezra's shoulders and posture relaxed. But then he perked up again as he hefted up his newly-completed lightsaber with a cocky grin. "Wanna try a bit of 'free-style' while we can?"

Harry couldn't help snorting in amusement at Ezra's rebellious nature. "Didn't Kanan give us _strict_ orders to practice the forms while he was away?"

"Yes, he did," Ezra acknowledged, nodding but his grin not wavering. "But he never said _how long_ we needed to practice them! Come on, we could do these in our _sleep_ at this point!"

Harry couldn't help quirking his brow at Ezra's confidence. "You haven't been an apprentice—er, _Padawan?_ – for very long, have you?"

"Nope!" Ezra chirped, his grin widening as he took a new stance with his feet apart, legs crouched slightly, his blade held level to the ground near his face, his free hand held out towards Harry. It was a stance that Harry had seen Kanan use when he started his own training katas. "Come on! Give me your best shot! Or are you scared I'll put you down in 10 seconds flat?"

Sighing heavily, Harry assumed a defensive stance with his saber held protective across his torso and waited. Seeing his partner's compliance, Ezra lunged forward with a jab. Harry bounced away as he swatted the stab to the side. But Ezra wouldn't be denied, he continued after Harry with multiple more stabs and light swings. The displaced Wizard just continued his defensive deflection and blocks, watching Ezra's increasingly wild swings and exaggerated movements. Then, just as he knew he would, Ezra overcommitted to an overhead swing as he suddenly leapt forward to try and gain greater height and falling power to his swing. Harry neatly sidestepped the descending blade, retracting his saber blade as Ezra stumbled to his knees. As Ezra spun around to try and swing at Harry's legs, the other end of Harry's lightsaber ignited and Ezra found an orange saber tip just inches from his face, causing him to freeze as he turned a slight glare up at Harry.

"I win," Harry said simply, though the slight grin on his face betrayed his nonchalant stance.

"No fair!" Ezra whined as he pushed himself back to his feet, batting Harry's blade from his face. "Mine doesn't have multiple settings like that!"

"Do you really think the Imperials or that Inquisitor guy is going to care about 'fighting fair' with you?" Harry asked, cocking his head. "How many fights have you been in?"

"Plenty!" Ezra snapped, now pouting as he reset himself.

"Well, so have I," Harry said. "And in every single one, the other side _always_ had an unfair advantage. That's just how it is."

Ezra contemplated that for a moment before his grin suddenly returned. "I guess I'll just have to train harder to make up for that!"

Despite himself, Harry couldn't stop himself from cracking a grin in response. It was something of a new experience to have a partner who was so consistently upbeat and optimistic. Ron was pretty carefree in his own way, but he was also quite a bit more downtrodden from being the youngest brother who was struggling to distinguish himself, as well as the stigma of coming from a poor family in a society of high-wealth wizards. Plus, with his mounting jealousy issues from the past year, Harry knew that he wouldn't have taken this defeat with nearly as much grace as Ezra just did. Hermione was all business, never really having the time or inclination for fun. As far as Harry was concerned, based on what little he'd learned of the Lothal boy's past, he was a much better person than Harry considered himself to be.

Holding up his saber defensively in a reverse-grip, Harry's grin widened slightly as he surprised Ezra by being the first one to rush in swinging. Even though he was surprised, Ezra quickly adapted to having to be the defender, batting away Harry's blade as he gave some probing jabs and slashes towards his feet. It was surprising and a little strange to Ezra since he'd not fought against Harry or Kanan when they weren't holding their weapon in the proper manner. This inexperience is what led to him yelping in slight pain as he misjudged one of Harry's low slashes and caught an electric jolt on his unarmored shin. The pain caused him to jump away and drop his guard as he knelt down to cradle his stinging leg.

"Gaah! That stings!" he hissed, furiously trying to rub some feeling back into his limb.

"You alright?" Harry asked, moving forward as he lowered his guard. In response, Ezra suddenly lunged forward, swinging his lightsaber and scoring a strike on Harry's right thigh. The dark-haired boy yelped himself as he stumbled back and fell the ground in an undignified manner as he clutched his own leg.

"Now I am!" Ezra chirped, happy to finally have scored a hit.

"No fair!" Harry barked angrily, glaring at Ezra.

" _How many_ fights have you been in again?" Ezra retorted with his usual grin, not at all repentant.

"…Okay, maybe I deserved that," Harry admitted, his glare lessening as he deactivated his lightsaber and set it aside as he started trying to rub some feeling back into his leg.

"Go again?" Ezra asked, his grin now a bit more subdued but no less playful.

Rolling his eyes, Harry said, "In a bit…once my leg wakes up."

Nodding in agreement, Ezra deactivated his lightsaber and sat down himself. After a moment of silence, both boys let out quiet sighs as they relaxed and tentatively reached out into the Force, seeking serenity and clarity.

"Hey, Harry," Ezra said unexpectedly, earning a glance from his partner. "I've been wondering lately. You say you're a 'wizard' who uses 'magic' but, really, what can you do that would make you different from a Jedi? You haven't shown us anything that me or Kanan can't do yet."

"If I still had my wand, I could do _lots_ of things," Harry said moodily, yearning and remorse in his voice at the thought of his broken and lost wand, perhaps one of his most treasured possessions ever. Shaking the sad thoughts from his mind, he said, "I could use magic to shape or create objects, transform them from one thing to another. I could open high-security doors that the best of technology couldn't hope to budge. I could cause a person's body, whether their whole body or just parts of it, to lock up and freeze in place. I could create light to see in the dark, or imbue objects with temporary magical powers, like being able to float on their own or become utterly unbreakable."

Needless to say, Ezra was gaping blatantly with a slack jaw as Harry calmly listed all of the wondrous things he could do. And the calm, disinterested voice he used to describe the effects confirmed that he was merely stating common facts, like how the sky was blue and water was wet. "Are you serious?!"

"Of course I'm serious," Harry said, sending his new friend a wane grin. But that grin soon puttered out as memories of his godfather filtered through briefly.

Seeing Harry's grin, Ezra excited said, "Show me! Come on, show me one of those things! Please?!"

"I can't," Harry said, rolling his eyes somewhat at Ezra's enthusiasm. "I don't know how to use my magic without my wand. And using the Force is something completely different to my magic."

"Can't you just summon and use your magic like we do the Force?" Ezra asked. "It seems like it'd be a pretty simple comparison to me."

"You would think so," Harry agreed longingly. "But there's a stark difference between the two. To use the Force, I summon energy out of the air and the world around me. To use my magic, I have to use my own internal energies. And for some reason, my energies have been sorely depleted these last few weeks, they're not refilling themselves as quickly as they used to."

"Okay, maybe that won't work," Ezra nodded, seeing the problem. "But what if you tried using the Force and using it as you would magic instead? Wouldn't that work just as well?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer an automatic denial, but then paused, cocking his head in deep thought. After a few moments of hard consideration, he tentatively said, "I… _suppose_ it… _could_ work, in _theory_ … But I would have to…relearn everything about…channeling and shaping an outside energy as I would my own internal energy."

Ezra could practically see the gears spinning in Harry's mind as a new fire of determination flared up in the boy's eyes. Ideas began flooding through his mind as his imagination suddenly went wild with the possibilities. The Lothal boy couldn't help chuckling quietly to himself as he watched Harry's expressions change subtly. The boy was perhaps the most mellow and modest person he'd ever met before, so seeing him become so lively was definitely something worth seeing in his opinion.

"Okay," Ezra said, interrupting Harry's thoughts. "Maybe not now, but after you do some practicing, you could show me some of that stuff?"

"Sure, if you want," Harry agreed easily. As far as he was concerned, Ezra and Kanan were the closest equivalent to wizards in this universe, so he wouldn't get into any trouble by acquiescing this request.

"Well, I think that's enough of a breather," Ezra said, climbing to his feet and igniting his lightsaber. "Let's go again! Unless you're afraid _I'll_ beat _you_ this time!"

Chuckling at Ezra's eagerness and confidence, Harry nodded as he climbed to his feet as well, his leg no longer in pain. Igniting his orange blade, he grinned in challenge, "Don't think I'll easy on you this time." And with that, orange and blue clashed together fervently.

* * *

 **Common Room,** _ **Ghost**_

"You wanted to see us, Hera?" Sabine asked as she, Ezra, and their two new recruits entered the lounge. It was still relatively early in the morning, but now closer to midday. The group of youngsters had just finished their morning training sessions and were on their way to clean and washup. Dudley in particular could've really used a shower, given how covered in dirt and sweat he was thanks to Sabine's less than gentle treatment of him.

"Yes, I have a mission for you four," Hera said simply, scarcely looking up from her spot at the table, where she was once again balancing their finances. However, upon seeing their faces light up at the word 'mission', she quickly said, "It's a 'milk run' mission, at best. Don't get your hopes up, kids."

"Well, what is it?" Dudley prodded, the excited look on his face easily matching that of Ezra's.

"I'm sending your four to Raxus Prime on a…shopping mission," Hera revealed. Harry and Ezra both blinked in clueless ignorance, Sabine merely raised an eyebrow as she immediately caught on to what Hera was implying, and Dudley's face was screwed up in concentration as he tried to remember where he'd heard that name before.

"Raxus Prime?" Dudley asked, hesitantly. "Isn't that a…junkyard?"

"Yes, it is," Hera confirmed, a small grin pulling at her lips as she saw Ezra's expression drop in disappointment and Harry's face go carefully blank. "It may be overflowing with garbage, but that's also prime black-market real estate. Anything you want could likely be found there, for the right price."

"Okaaaay, so _why_ are we going there on a shopping trip?" Ezra asked, voicing the same question that was both of other boys' minds as well.

"Simple, your mission is to get Harry and Dudley some weapons and equipment for our missions," Hera explained.

"Makes sense to me," Sabine said agreeably. "We basically _are_ the black-market dealers of Lothal. And I certainly wouldn't want to any of the common Imperial blasters. The E-11s are next to worthless. Anything more exotic wouldn't be sold here."

"So, how are we getting there?" Dudley asked, grinning widely at the realization he was about to get his own blaster. "I assume we're not taking the _Ghost_ , right?"

"Correct," Hera nodded. "You'll be taking a public transit shuttle." Digging into one of her flightsuit's pockets, she extracted a large handful of golden credits which she passed to Sabine. "That should be enough for a round trip and your purchases. But try to be conservative, okay? Jobs are a little scarce right now, so we don't know when or if we'll get paid again. Specter 5, you're in charge for this mission."

"I'll keep them in line, don't worry," Sabine said, grinning somewhat mischievously at the boys as she turned to them. "Well, come on, boys! We've got a shuttle to catch!"

"Hey, how come I can't be in charge?" Ezra asked as he turned to follow the departing Mandalorian.

"Probably because you're about as mature as a two-week knob?" Dudley stated, grinning over at the boy.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Ezra asked, his face and voice feigning confusion as he dug into his ear as though to clean it. "I must've heard that wrong. Must have some fuzz in my ear again. But it sounded like you said I was the immature one here."

"Ohh, there was nothing wrong with your hearing, mate," Dudley said, the grin plainly obvious in his face and voice.

As the budding argument grew softer and quieter, Hera couldn't help chuckling slightly. Even after only a few days, it was quite obvious that Dudley and Ezra both shared the same stubborn streak and loved to get into a little arguments and spats with one another. Hera suspected they did it in a childish bid of playground dominance, and maybe as a way of futilely trying to show off to Sabine, as far as Ezra was concerned. Usually, they were pretty humorous for her and the rest of the crew, though that would likely change if they ever got caught in one of them during an actual mission. It was promising to be a potential problem that she and Kanan would have to deal with, if it persisted. Still, at the moment, it was just playful bantering.

Finally finishing with their budget, Hera smiled somewhat as she saw the final figures. Thanks to the sale of the TIE Interceptor they'd made to Vizago, they were actually doing pretty well for the moment. Sabine's guess had been fairly spot on with the value of the ship and Vizago had generously paid them 20 thousand, which he'd no doubt sell for double the price elsewhere. That was enough credits to keep them fed and the _Ghost_ fueled for three months, if they were conservative. Things were actually looking pretty good for them right now.

' _Now, where are Kanan, Zeb, and Chopper?_ ' she wondered idly. ' _They should've been back from Jhothal two hours ago!_ '

* * *

 **Raxus Prime  
Four hours later…**

Raxus Prime welcomed them in all its decrepit glory.

The gray, synthetic world's surface was covered by almost as much metal as Nar Shaddaa or Coruscant, but there the similarity ended. Whereas one was alive with light and commerce, the other was a steaming rubbish dump inhabited by scavengers and scum. Even from space, the pollution and mountains of twisted metal were clearly visible, heralding a noxious reputation that Sabine knew all too well.

It wasn't just the filthy atmosphere and the mountains of decaying rubbish. It was a planet, one with a startlingly strong magnetic field. Every orbital lane was filled with junk, and so were a series of complex magnetic field-lines sweeping near the surface itself. These lines carried iron-bearing fragments aloft in a grim parody of a gas giant's rings. They were crawling with tiny vessels, either automated or single-pilot, searching for anything of value. Every now and again lasers flared, cutting at hulks or at rivals homing in on a nearby trinket.

"Whoooaaaa," Ezra breathed from where he was seated ahead of Sabine, gazing out at the world with undisguised awe and disgust. "You weren't kidding. It really is a junkyard!"

"Heheh, it looks even worse than I'd imagined," Dudley remarked, also staring out the window from the opposite side.

"How, in all of the galaxy, are we supposed to find anything worth anything down there?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"You just gotta know where to look," Sabine said evenly, glancing around the shuttle's interior.

Raxus Prime was pretty far down on the list of places to go in the galaxy. Aside from junk-haulers from the Coreworlds, only smugglers and scavengers frequented the place. That being said, it came as no surprise to Sabine that the four of them were the only passengers aboard the Star Commuter shuttle with this particular destination ahead. In a few ways, this irregularity would probably draw a few glances from Imperials, but Sabine doubted they'd look too far into it beyond simply finding where they went.

The shuttle's droid pilot had to scan the surface multiple times in order to pinpoint a semi-adequate spot to safely land at, which just happened to be within walking distance of what was perhaps the last remaining settlement on the planet. Of course, calling it a 'settlement' was a bit misleading, since it implied that the residents were content with the world and were seeking to further colonize it. No, this 'settlement' was more accurately described as a shantytown for people too poor or foolish to be able to legally depart. And, whether the droid pilot knew it or not, it was also the most logical place to start searching for the contraband dealers.

As they were departing from the shuttle, the droid pilot said, "This shuttle is scheduled to depart promptly at 1700 hours. For passengers seeking to depart, please be present prior to departure. Thank you for flying Star Commuter Spacelines. We hope you have a pleasant stay on Raxus Prime." Sadly, for the droid, it was largely speaking to itself since none of its young passengers paid it anymore attention beyond when its departure time was.

"1700, eh?" Sabine murmured as she checked her chrono. "That gives us about three hours to browse the selection. Let's not waste time, boys."

Marching forward, she carefully started making her way through the piles of debris. This proved to be quite dangerous, as the ground consisted of rotting pieces of metal, plastics, and rotting woods which shifted and buckled under the smallest pressure. The boys followed in her footsteps, almost literally, as they slowly worked their way through the narrow valley of debris that was available to them. Unlike Sabine though, they were rather distracted when it came to watching their footing.

"Ugh, what is that smell?!" Dudley demanded loudly, one hand clamped tightly upon his nose.

"I don't know, but it's awful!" Harry said, holding his nose in revulsion as well.

"Ugh, I think it's—! It's in my mouth!" Ezra whined. "Bleh! Argh! I'm never going to get that taste out! Uggghh!"

Despite herself, Sabine could barely suppress her amusement at her companions' problems. Thanks to the pressurized gear and an air-filter in her helmet, Sabine was spared the stench that was pummeling the others. Still, it would probably be best to not rub their noses in that fact, it would probably make them…irritable, later. "Focus, guys! We're almost there."

After several more minutes, they emerged into the end of the only street that arced through the settlement. Scattered across the street were a variety of stands, lean-tos, and barely cobbled together structures that clearly served as housing and stores. Walking along the street was a surprising number of beings, mostly Jawas that were scampering between stands and haggling with one another. Others Sabine clearly recognized as spacers, their regalia and shifty looks told her they were ready to draw their blasters at the slightest sign of trouble.

"Everybody, keep your eyes peeled," Sabine said softly, but forcefully. "These people look easily spooked. Try not to draw undue attention to yourself or we might have to blast our way out of here."

"Heh, I don't know, Specter 5," Dudley said, grinning around his disgust. "That last option sounds like it'd be a lot of fun."

"And how do you expect to do that _without a weapon_ , Specter 8?" Harry shot back before Sabine could rebuke him.

"I didn't mean right now! Jeeze!" Dudley said hurriedly.

"I don't know, sure sounded that way to me," Ezra chimed in, grinning at being able to poke fun at his new teammate again.

As Dudley was turning to glare back at Ezra, something caught his eye and he stopped, staring off to the side. Before anyone could question him, Dudley hurried off towards what had caught his attention. Looking amongst each other, the remaining Specters all shrugged before following after him. They found him digging through a small pile of what looked like Clone Wars tech to Sabine's eye. Just as they reached him, he stood up and turned to face them, showing off what had caught his eye. It was an old clone trooper helmet, Phase 1 armor she recognized. It was painted with the stylized green markings that were common of its era, most notable were the set of Jaig eyes above the visor. The helmet was covered in scratches, with three especially deep ones carved into the plastic around the chin section, clearly the work of a clawed predator of some kind.

"I want it!" Dudley chirped, holding the helmet out towards the group with a pleading look in his eye.

Despite herself, Sabine rolled herself as she let out a long sigh. Of course, the kid would be drawn towards a helmet. Especially one that bore a mark of honor that he hadn't earned yet, in her opinion.

"Whoa!" Ezra gasped, moving forward to examine the helmet design he'd never seen before. "What is it?"

"An old clone trooper helmet," Sabine said, already starting to dig into her pocket for the credits. "A bit roughed up and probably missing a few key internal components, but a helmet would probably be a good idea. Good pick, Specter 8."

Dudley grinned at her approval before turning to try and haggle with the stand owner. At the same time, Ezra had started poking around the various knickknacks on display. Sabine could easily identify the expression on his face and knew that he was searching for his own clone trooper helmet. Shaking her head in exasperation, Sabine slipped a few of the credits into Dudley's hand before turning and grabbing Harry's shoulder. "Come on, Specter 7. Let's go try somewhere else."

"Ah, sure," Harry said, nodding in consent of her demand.

Moving up to walk at her side, he awkwardly sought for something to say. This was the first real time that he'd been alone with the Mandalorian girl and, being honest with himself, he was rather intimidated by her. Fierce, smart, loyal, but also quiet and reserved, it was little wonder to Harry just why Ezra was always trying to flirt and befriend her. But Harry also understood that some people just preferred solitude and that Sabine was clearly one of them. So, by default, he didn't know her nearly as well as he was coming to know the rest of the Specters.

"So…Got any ideas for weapons we could get?" Harry finally asked, glancing at the girl as she looked from one weapons stand and to the next as they passed them.

"Blasters for sure," Sabine answered, pausing as she spied a long table covered in the weapons. Beckoning him, she said, "Let's go look at these."

The table, which was little more than a long strip of a ship's hull propped up on a pair of rotting engine chassis, was covered from one end to the next with a variety of rifles and pistols. Even with his…limited knowledge of firearms, even Harry could see that most of these rifles were just one accidental drop away from being pure junk. He could barely keep his grimace of disgust from showing on his face as he saw one piece of junk after another. That's not to say that they were all junk, just most of them.

Sabine was easily able to identify several pistols and rifles among the junk pile that, while dented, scratched, and clearly showed signs of use, were in much better condition that the others. After shuffling through them for a bit, she finally selected two of them that met her specifications. With a bit of bargaining with the stand owner, Sabine loaded each of them with a blaster pack and test-fired them at the junkpile behind the stand. Apparently meeting her expectations, she quickly handed the owner six of the credits before motioning to Harry it was time to leave.

"Here you go," Sabine said, handing one of the blasters over towards him, the handle facing him and the barrel away from her. "Give it a try."

Carefully taking the pistol, Harry looked it over for a moment. It was a surprisingly heavy thing, with a stubby handle, big black body, and a short barrel. For some reason, the pistol nagged at his memory but he couldn't place where he'd seen it before. Shrugging the nagging aside, he turned and carefully pointed it towards the side and pulled the trigger. Much to his embarrassment, he nearly dropped the pistol from the unexpectedly strong recoil and the blaster bolt itself completely missed the target he'd been aiming for, though admittedly not by much.

"I see we're going to have to add blaster training to your schedule," Sabine commented, her voice carefully neutral as she gazed at him.

"Sorry about that," Harry muttered, head bowed somewhat sheepishly. This was his first time handling or even using a firearm, so he wasn't entirely surprised. But it was still so embarrassing!

Idly twirling the second blaster pistol around a finger in her hand, Sabine nodded to the side. "Come on. We got what we needed, now let's get off rotting corpse of a planet." Harry nodded in eager agreement with that plan.

As they were returning back to where they'd left Dudley and Ezra, Harry frowned. Even from the distance, it was clear that both boys were missing. Ezra's orange clothing and Dudley's blonde hair stuck out quite prominently in a land of rust-red, blackened metal, and moldy brown. But it wasn't only that. With the budding sense of awareness that Kanan had been teaching him, Harry could…feel a menacing collection of auras up ahead. They were moving away quickly, clearly in a hurry.

"Sabine," Harry said softly, his hand tightening around his new pistol as his other grasped his lightsaber from his belt. "There's something…not right up ahead."

"What do you mean?" she asked lowly.

"Someone or people are watching us, but they're rushing away, in a hurry," Harry said. "And…Ezra and Dudley are missing…"

It took only a split second for the implications to hit Sabine. When they did, she lowered her range-finding antenna down before her eye and looked ahead. "You're right. They're gone…and Dudley forgot his helmet."

Without another word, both of them broke out into a run, rushing back to that first stand. Looking around, Harry easily found the green-painted helmet that Dudley had been bargaining for when they left. "There's no way Dudley would've left this behind. Once he wants something, Dudley will do anything to get it."

"And this Ezra's backpack," Sabine said, picking up the item she'd found kicked under one of the tables. She felt relieved that her face was covered by her helmet, since no one could see the slightly worried expression on her face.

Walking over, Harry took the backpack from her as he stuffed Dudley's helmet into it before slinging it over his shoulders.

"I see some tracks headed in that direction," Sabine said, her scope still down as she surveyed the area. "Looks…four or five of them, and at least one person was being dragged."

"Who do you think they are?" Harry asked, following after her as she took after at a fast run along the line of tracks he could now faintly see. Within moments, they were running up a steep hill of jagged metal, following a zigzagging trail that twisted its way up the hill.

"Here on Raxus Prime?" she said. "Scavengers, slavers, lowlifes in general."

As they were cresting the top, they had just enough time to glimpse a struggling Dudley getting pulled into a starship by a pair of Weequay pirates before its ramp raised and the engines came online, kicking up a filthy dust cloud as it rose up into the air.

"Dudley!" Harry yelled, running forward. Raising his pistol, he started firing up on the ship as it spun in the air for a moment before the engines kicked in and it went rocketing off across the landscape. "Where are they going?!"

Looking around quickly, Sabine realized that the spot they were in was some type of vehicle landing zone. They were surrounded by a variety of starships, shuttles, and other vehicles. Most of them looked like scavengers had already torn them apart but a select few looked in better condition than the others. Grabbing Harry's shoulder, she pulled him with her as she ran towards the closest one that looked operable. "Come on! Maybe we can still catch them!"

"In _that_ thing?!" Harry yelled upon seeing the freighter that she wished to take. While he could understand her desire, since it appeared the most intact of the group, he instincts were screaming at him to not take it. That it wouldn't work. And since coming to this universe, his instincts had been unusually spot-on when in emergency situations. So, with that in mind, Harry pulled himself free of Sabine's grip and instead grabbed her arm as he turned and headed towards a different one. This one wasn't a freighter, but it did have a large open area in the bottom and what seemed like several large cannons protruding over the cockpit. "Let's take this one!"

"That one's garbage!" Sabine yelled, fighting against his grip but to no avail. "We need something that'll _fly_ , not just crash into the ground!"

"Just trust me!" Harry yelled back as he reached the vehicle, climbing up into the cockpit through the broken viewport. Immediately, he started fiddling with the various switches and buttons, running through what Hera had been teaching him was the pre-lift sequence. He started muttering angrily to himself as he tried to bring power back onto the vehicle. "I can do this. I can do this."

Sabine just growled as she hurried into the back of the damaged Republic LAATI that Harry had chosen. The bay doors on both sides had been torn off, much of the interior had been stripped down, and she knew that none of the missiles remained within the launchers above. The only weapons that _might_ have still worked were the chin-mounted laser turrets.

Rapidly running through the full panoply of relevant instrumentation, Harry waited for a moment as a low whine rose from the rear of the craft. He reached for the control that would, he hoped, bring all his hurried preparations to fruition. At the stern of the ship, long quiescent engines flared to brilliant life. Fully powered up now, it soared into the murky brown and golden sky of the junkyard planet, but not efficiently. Shedding protruding debris and knocking into a nearby stripped-down freighter as it rose, the old LAATI spun and careened wildly, nearly crashing back down into the junk from whence it had emerged. Wrestling with the unfamiliar controls, Harry managed to level off just in time to avoid nosediving into the jagged peaks of a shredded warship hull.

Finding the oddly shaped craft to be surprisingly responsive to manual control, an increasingly optimistic Harry spun it around and accelerated, blasting away after the fleeing freighter that had his cousin and teammate. Harry headed skyward, relieved to feel the craft's increasing power as they soared away from the surface. Steadily pushing the craft's thrusters higher until they were flying at nearly top speed, Harry 'reached out' with his magic, the Force, searching for Ezra's presence. After only a few moments, he felt the shining beacon that was his friend responding to his searching call. He could feel Ezra's fear, confusion, and anger. But also feel his relief and mounting eagerness now that he knew Harry was close behind.

"Nice job, Harry!" Sabine's voice was barely audible to him over the screaming winds and roaring engines that were berating his eardrums.

"They've already got a big lead on us!" he called back, glancing behind and below him where he could see the girl hanging onto a harness from the ceiling. "Why haven't they tried to leave the planet yet?"

"They must have other crew members scattered about the planet!" Sabine guessed. "All of them hunting for their own prey, and probably all of them are fairly close by!"

"Which means we don't have a lot of time!" Harry realized, pressing forward on the throttle yet again to try and squeeze out every single out of propulsive force he could get. ' _Hang on, guys! We're coming!_ '

* * *

 **Cargo Hold,** _ **Black Heart**_

"God save our gracious Queen!  
Long live our noble Queen!  
God save the Queen!  
Send her victorious,  
Happy and glorious,  
Long to reign over us:  
God save the Queen!"

Ezra could honestly say that situation he was in was both annoyingly familiar and annoyingly, well, annoying. It had happened a few minutes after Harry and Sabine had left them to browse at the stand. A gang of Weequay pirates had approached and surrounded him and Dudley. Ezra had both seen and sensed their hostility almost immediately and had tried to get Dudley to run. Sadly, the Weequay were quicker on the draw than Dudley was at realizing the danger they were in. Both of them had been hit full force with stun bolts that left them incapacitated and nearly blacked out, thus unable to put up any resistance when they were hauled off in shackles and dumped into the pirates' cargo hold of their ship.

"O Lord our God arise,  
Scatter her enemies,  
And make them fall:  
Confound their politics,  
Frustrate their knavish tricks,  
On Thee our hopes we fix:  
God save us all."

Being captured was nothing new to Ezra. Being able to call out for help in the Force, and receiving an answer, was nothing new. But what was new was his companion's means of 'passing the time'. After using his newest Force trick to pick the lock of their shackles, Ezra had gotten started on ripping open a panel near the doorway and trying to rewire the door into activating its emergency failsafe, which would cause it to automatically open itself and allow them to escape.

At least that was his intentions. But this was proving a might bit difficult to do considering his teammate had suddenly started singing out in a loud and horrendously off-key some type of song that he didn't recognize. Dudley's singing voice was so terrible that Ezra truly believed that a strangled loth-cat could've sung that song better than Dudley! The boy didn't have any sense of rhythm and was completely tone-deaf!

"Thy choicest gifts in store,  
On her be pleased to pour;  
Long may she reign:  
May she defend our—!"

" _Would you_ _ **stop that**_ _already?!_ " Ezra yelled, having finally lost his patience. "You're giving me a _headache_ , Dudley!"

Mercifully, Dudley did stop his singing, though he was now glaring at Ezra for the implied insult. "Hey, don't start yelling at me! I'm busy here!"

"Yeah, doing what?" Ezra demanded irritably as he turned his attention back to what he had been doing. "Besides being a _royal_ pain in the ass?"

"It's all part of my brilliant _escape plan_ , Specter 6!" Dudley revealed in a grandiose voice.

"Puh! Shrieking like a strangled loth-cat _isn't_ going to get us out of here!" Ezra stated with total certainty. "Now would you _be quiet_ and let me concentrate here?! I've almost got the doors open!"

"You don't _know_ that that's going to work," Dudley pointed out. "At least with _my_ plan, it's a guaranteed thing that we'll escape, _sooner_ than later! You just be ready to blast them when they open the door in a few minutes." And just like that, he promptly returned to singing that horrendous melody again, except even _louder_ than before.

Just as Ezra was about to yell at him again, a loud banging on the door drew both of their attentions. "SHUT UP IN THERE!" a loud and disgusted voice roared from the other side.

For just a moment, Dudley did stop his singing, wearing a wide and knowing grin on his face when Ezra glanced over at him in honest disbelief. Ezra couldn't help but gawk at him as the realization of what Dudley had in mind finally dawned on him. ' _So_ _ **that's**_ _what he meant!_ ' With that realization, he was far from surprised when Dudley started his singing once again.

Knowing what was coming, Ezra backed away from the door and put his hands together as though they were still shackled. Sure enough, after several more futile moments of angry pounding and yelling, the door finally slid open and a furious Weequay marched into the room with a blaster drawn. Ezra didn't even need the Force to sense his fury and disgust towards the still-singing Dudley.

"SHUT UP OR I'LL BLAST YOU!"

Reaching forward and waving his fingers vaguely through the air, Ezra sought out the Weequay's mind and attempted to exert his own will over his as he issued his commands to it. "You _won't_ blast us. You're going to _drop your weapon_ and stand _aside_."

"What did you say?!" the pirate demanded, switching his attention and his blaster to Ezra within a second. "No one gives me orders, brat!"

' _Dammit! I thought I'd have gotten it down by now!_ ' Ezra moaned silently to himself. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was just offering you some much needed advice! So, you wouldn't have to get hurt in the next few minutes!"

"Oh, you're a _joker_ , eh?" the pirate spat out. "I _hate_ jokers."

"Yeah, well, that wasn't a joke," Ezra stated seriously.

Before the pirate could react, Dudley suddenly launched himself forward and barreled into the man. He immediately buried a fist into the man's gut, driving the air from his lungs and causing him to double over and drop his blaster. A following uppercut to the chin knocked the pirate senseless as he collapsed to the floor, moaning and groaning in pain. Ezra quickly snatched up the fallen blaster, switched it off the 'Kill' setting and hit the Weequay with a stun beam. As the pirate rolled over with an unconscious groan, a very familiar weapon revealed itself to be hanging from his belt. Tossing the blaster to Dudley, Ezra hurriedly knelt down and retrieved his lightsaber from the pirate.

Rushing to the door with their weapons at the ready, the both of them quickly surveyed the hallway and found it to be empty.

"What's the plan?" Dudley asked.

"Why are you asking me?" Ezra shot back. "Aren't you the one with the plans?"

"Yes, but didn't you also have one?"

"Yeah, mine was to get out of here and jettison in an escape pod," Ezra admitted.

"Boring," Dudley chimed, grinning at Ezra's raised brow. "How about we commandeer ourselves a new ship?"

Despite himself, Ezra had to blink in surprise for a moment. "You want to steal this ship?"

"Commandeer," Dudley corrected. "Yes, we're going to _commandeer_ the ship. If we don't like it, we can always sell it for more credits later on."

"Can't argue with that," Ezra admitted, already working on a plot to get control of the ship.

"First," Dudley continued. "We need to thin out the crew, then we'll have to sneak our way into the bridge."

"Not a problem," Ezra said. "Specters 5 and 7 are already on their way after us. Knowing Specter 5, the crew will have their hands busy dealing them."

As if to confirm his statement, loud cracks of laser fire suddenly filled the air as the turrets of the ship opened fire. A moment later, a sharp explosion rang out from a portion of the hull, rocking the entire ship and almost knocking the boys off their feet. After stabilizing themselves, they nodded to one another as they stepped out of the cargo hold and started making their way cautiously but quickly through the circular hallway beyond.

* * *

"Argh! Bloody hell!" Harry was cussing.

Despite his best efforts, the pirate ship had detected his rapid approach and had started opening fire upon them as soon as they were within range. Sabine had retaliated by throwing one of her bombs at the hull. Even though she'd missed her target, the explosive blast was still large and strong enough to rock the ship rather badly. In response, the gun turret mounted on top had managed to score a successful hit on the gunship's port engine, killing it almost immediately. Now, trailing thick black smoke, the LAATI was rapidly starting to lose altitude and speed.

"Come on, Specter 7!" Sabine yelled as she backed up as far as she could go in the narrow gunship. "It's still close enough! We can jump it!" She promptly demonstrated this by sprinting forward and taking a leap of faith, managing to catch a solid grip on a section of the hull.

"This is a _bad_ idea," Harry murmured to himself. Even so, he hurriedly climbed out of the pilot's chair and threw himself across the gap. He slammed heavily into the hull, right next to that strange circular part of the ship that was closest to the LAATI. He nearly lost his grip on the hull thanks to the sheer wind speeds and momentum of the moving ship, but he held on desperately. ' _Now what?!_ '

"Hang on!" Sabine cried as she appeared overhead, lying down on the hull and stretching her arm over towards him. "I've got you!"

But before either of them could grab ahold of the other's hand, the airlock Harry was hanging next to suddenly twisted and slid open. Appearing through the opening was an ugly, wrinkled face of a creature Harry didn't recognize but easily identified as a pirate, given his chosen clothing. Spotting the blaster in the creature's hand aiming towards him, including the look of foul triumph in his expression, Harry followed his instinct and ducked behind the curvature of the hull around the airlock. And not a moment too soon, as blaster fire quickly followed, creating a shower of sparks as several of the shots ricocheted off the hull where his body had hung seconds prior.

Up above, Sabine used her free hand to snatch up one of her pistols and bring it bear. But even as she was aiming it for the Weequay's shoulder and arm, the pirate suddenly lurched forward, tumbling out of the airlock with a startled cry, two burning holes of blaster fire momentarily visible in his clothes. Sabine blinked in surprise at seeing the pirate's now corpse fall and disappear into the passing piles of junk below. When a blonde head suddenly poked itself through the airlock, she realized what had happened.

"Specter 8!" she called out, quickly getting Dudley's attention. Motioning towards the struggling Harry with her blaster, she yelled, "Help him!"

Dudley needed no further prompting as he soon found Harry and helped pull him inside the ship. Sabine was only a few moments behind, swinging down through the airlock from above. Quickly rising from the automatic crouch she'd landed in and drawing both of her pistols, she instantly surveyed the interior and found it clear of immediate threats. Although there were two more pirates inside, both were on the floor or leaning against the wall with visible blaster wounds.

Turning to Dudley as he closed the airlock, Sabine nodded towards him, "I see you've been busy. Where's Ezra?"

"He should be taking control of the bridge right now," Dudley said, already turning and beckoning them to follow him. "I've already run into three more of these goons. Who knows how many more there are?"

"On a ship this size?" Harry said. "Probably not too many. I'd guess five to seven in total."

"I agree," Sabine acknowledged.

They worked their way through the ship, heading in a counterclockwise circle and soon finding themselves in a large common room area. In the common room, they found the stunned forms of two more pirates and several new bullet holes lining the corridor on the room's other side, clearly Ezra's handwork. Dudley and Sabine pressed onward, but Harry stopped and started tying the pirates' hands behind their backs with some loose wiring. Hurrying towards the far corridor, the pair then found one more stunned pirate lying crumpled on the ground.

"This way," Sabine ordered, seeing the closed door at the end of the hallway to the right, which she guessed was the cockpit. Sliding the door open, she found Ezra standing guard with his lightsaber ignited over what was clearly the pirate captain seated in the pilot's chair.

"Hey, guys!" Ezra chirped in a casual voice. "What took you so long?"

* * *

 **Above Lothal  
Six hours later…**

"Huh, that's strange," Sabine said quietly. She seated in the copilot seat, leaning over a monitor that she was scanning through with a frown. "The _Ghost_ isn't where we left it."

"Can you find it on the scanners anywhere?" Ezra asked, rising slightly from his seat to look over her shoulder.

Humming to herself, Sabine fiddled with the controls, widening the search radius to encompass the entirety of the planet's hemisphere they were in range of.

As the pair of them were busy with their search, Harry had his hands full dealing with the Imperial blockade ahead of them as a pair of TIE fighters flew up to flank the freighter. Reaching up, he flicked on the comm and said, "Imperial blockade, this is the _Black Heart_. Requesting permission to land on Lothal."

" _ **Black Heart**_ _, we have you on scopes_ ," a modulated voice answered back in a slightly droning tone. " _Prepare for scanning. Maintain present course until completion_."

"Acknowledged," Harry stated, easing up on the throttle somewhat to slow the ship and seem as innocent and cooperative as possible.

After several moments of silence, the voice spoke up again, " _ **Black Heart**_ _, we have your freighter registered under the ownership of Captain Teft Culler, a pirate wanted for murder of Imperial authorities. Surrender or you will be destroyed!_ "

"Wait! Wait! I apologize for the misunderstanding!" Harry hurriedly replied. "You are partially correct. This vessel was _formerly_ owned by Captain Culler. My crew and I acquired ownership of it after we'd captured and transferred him to the Bounty Hunters Guild in the Ash Worlds Sector a few hours ago! Please cross-reference for verification."

There was a long, stressful pause that followed as the Imperials no doubt did exactly that. But Harry wasn't too worried about what they'd find. They had indeed dropped off the pirate captain and his remaining crewmembers at the closest Bounty Hunters Guild, using Sabine's license as a Bounty Hunter to acquire some extra funds and to claim the freighter as a legitimate prize of seizure, as was a common custom in the Guild and legal throughout the Empire. It came as both a surprise and not a surprise for the boys when they had learned that Sabine used to be a Bounty Hunter, with Ezra unnecessarily explaining each of the reasons for why she apparently fit the bill. And, despite how apparently ashamed she was of her previous occupation, those contacts had come in real handy for them now.

" _ **Black Heart**_ _, verification is confirmed_ ," the Imperial stated, sounding almost disappointed about that. " _You are cleared to proceed_."

"Thank you," Harry said before switching off the comm. He gently started easing the thrusters forward again as he brought the ship in for a descent into the atmosphere.

"Huh, you know, I _honestly_ thought they were going to attack us anyway," Dudley stated from his seat behind Harry.

"Not all spaceflights involve ship battles and frantic, narrow escapes, Dud," Harry pointed out, rolling his eyes at Dudley's disappointment. Honestly, he was growing increasingly aware and concerned of the fact that Dudley seemed to believe that this universe was still some kind of fantasy-made-real and that he had some kind 'invincibility' about him that made him immune to the dangers around him. ' _Something to discuss with him and maybe Kanan later_.' Refocusing on the present, he glanced over at Sabine, "Have you found the _Ghost_ yet?"

"Yes," Sabine nodded, gesturing to the side. "They're about 70 kilometers southeast of Capital City. It looks like they're preparing to land too. If we hurry, we should get there just a few minutes after they've landed."

"Wanna bet they'll be surprised and confused to see us in our own ship?" Dudley asked, grinning widely at them.

"Oh, they'll be confused but not surprised," Ezra said, leaning back in his seat with his arms resting comfortably behind his head.

"Oh? And how do you figure that?" Dudley asked, brow raised challengingly.

"Kanan," Ezra stated simply. "He'll know that at least me and Harry are aboard."

After a moment to think on that, a pout spread over Dudley's face. "That's so unfair! Talk about sucking all of the fun out of the surprise!"

Harry and Sabine both ignored the pointless banter that the two quickly got in, focusing more on flying their new ship towards where they'd detected their comrades being. As they drew closer, though, Ezra ceased his arguing with Dudley to stand up and gaze ahead at the horizon with a thousand-yard-stare in his eyes.

"Something's happening up ahead," Ezra said softly, eyes narrowing in concentration. Glancing down at Harry, he asked, "Can you sense it too?"

"Not really, no," Harry admitted. "Sensory isn't my strongest suit right now."

"What is it?" Sabine asked, looking up at Ezra with a slightly concerned gaze.

"I sense…fear, anger, greed, and…deception up ahead," Ezra said, his long stare returning for a moment before he blinked it away. "Harry, punch it! I think the others are in trouble!"

Nodding, Harry pressed the throttle forward, causing the freighter to lunge forward at the considerably increased speed. As he did this, Ezra and Sabine both climbed to their feet and hurried back towards to boarding ramp in preparation for a quick departure. Dudley quickly took Sabine's seat and fumbled with a few buttons before he managed to find and power up the freighter two gun turrets.

Glancing back at the closed cockpit door to ensure that they were indeed alone, Harry shot a quick glance at his cousin. "Any idea what's happening?"

Humming to himself, Dudley pondered for a moment. "Well, if the timeline holds true to what I remember from the show, and the blockade definitely supports it, then this is likely the part where the crew meets and gets a job from Lando Calrissian to transport a…some kind of pig creature to Lothal. But let's just say that he kept getting them in trouble throughout the whole ordeal. Right now, it is probably when they got caught in an ambush by a fat slaver who Lando cheated in order to get the pig in the first place."

"Lando?" Harry repeated questioningly. "That name sounds familiar."

"It should," Dudley nodded. "He was a character in the fifth movie, _Empire Strikes Back_. He's a con-artist, a gambler, trying to make it big."

"I'll take your word for it," Harry said distractedly. Up ahead, he could see what seemed like a small farmstead with the _Ghost_ parked in front of and with lots of blaster fire flying about. "Get ready!"

* * *

 **Two minutes earlier…**

"He has other debts to pay!" an angry voice yelled out. As it did, six armed thugs in combat gear stepped out of their hiding places around the farmstead, all aiming their weapons at the small group of adults. Once it was deemed safe, a fat, ugly, and pink creature dressed in a surprisingly expensive and fashionable suit revealed himself, also aiming his blaster pistol at the group.

"Azmorigan?!" Calrissian couldn't help uttering in disgruntled surprise, for more reasons than one.

"You _forget_ , Calrissian," Azmorigan growled in a mocking tone. " _ **I**_ introduced you to Vizago. I _knew_ where you were headed!"

"But _your ship_ —!" Calrissian stuttered out, still somewhat caught flatfooted by surprise. "You _couldn't_ have hidden it anywhere _close!_ Did you… _walk_ here? You don't walk _anywhere!_ "

"I do what's _necessary_ to claim _**my**_ _property!_ " Azmorigan growled bark angrily, though with a definite note of superior pride in his voice and expression.

"What do you want?" Hera asked, trying to keep things calm and steady.

"My demands are _simple_ ," Azmorigan assured them. "I want my _pig_ back. And _you_. Plus, this _ship_ and _its crew_ as compensation for my _**sore feet!**_ But first, _first,_ _I want to_ _ **bury**_ _ **Calrissian**_ _!_ "

"Yeah, yeah, I understand the feeling," Hera said agreeably before she put her arm protective in front of her slightly intimidated client. "But no."

"Now, wait," Kanan interjected, sending Hera what otherwise would've been a charming smile. "Let's consider that last demand for a sec."

However, in the length of time it took Hera and Kanan to speak up, Azmorigan had already run out of patience. " _I've_ _ **had**_ _it!_ _ **Blast them!**_ "

Immediately, the armed thugs opened fire. Hera, Kanan, and Zeb were all quick to draw their own blasters and return fire. Hera shuffled Calrissian protectively to the side behind some cargo crates. Zeb took up a position on the other side, with Kanan hiding just before the _Ghost's_ still open ramp. The thugs were quick to drop back behind their initial hiding places again while maintaining their fire on their enemies.

C1-10P rushed off to hide behind some large cannisters and crates, all but forgotten in the chaos of the firefight. After only a few moments, C1-10P realized that the cannister was actually a fuel cell, something the _Ghost_ could always use a steady supply of. If he'd had a face, C1-10P would've been grinning like a madman as he backed up and rushed forward to ram into the cannister in an effort to start moving it towards their ship.

Things could've gone either way in the ensuing chaos. Azmorigan's goons had slightly better equipment than the Specters, with extra ammo cells and two extra gunmen. The Specters only had what few ammo packs they carried on their persons. Kanan might've been able to discreetly use the Force to give his team an advantage, but he was also reluctant to let a gangster and slaver like Azmorigan to possibly realize he was a secret Jedi. As it were, the odds were clearly in favor of Azmorigan, even if the rebels had faced far more dire circumstances than this.

But whatever might've happened, the sudden appearance of an unknown ship coming in at a recklessly fast approach put a momentary halt on the firefight. Everyone watched in confusion, unsure of who the ship belonged to, as it swung around to the side of the farmstead. The gun turret mounted on its portside shifted slightly before opening fire on the landspeeder that three of the thugs were hiding behind. The speeder exploded spectacularly, knocking the thugs off their feet and likely killing them in the process. At the same time, a ramp descended from the starboard side and a pair of young figures dropped lightly to the ground, already opening fire on the remaining thugs and Azmorigan.

Within moments, the fight had ended with the remaining thugs throwing down their weapons and surrendering. Azmorigan was quick to drop his own pistol when he found himself staring down the business end of Zeb's bo-rifle.

"My new terms, Azmorigan," Hera declared loudly to be heard over the thrumming roar of the new ship's repulsorlifts. "You and men leave now, and we'll let you live. Start walking!"

Seeing Azmorigan's clear hesitance about surrendering so quickly after all of the effort and anger he'd endured in the last few hours, Zeb kicked him pointedly in the back, causing the slaver to start grumbling angrily as he glared back at the smelly Lasat. Nonetheless, the kick was enough to get him started walking, with his goons following in quick succession. After watching for a few moments to make sure that they were indeed leaving, the ship finally settled down on the ground, it's landing gear groan slightly in protest as it settled on the slightly uneven ground. Several moments later, a familiar pair of boys descended the ramp and joined their teammates in front of their four older peers.

"Looks like you four had quite an adventure," Kanan remarked, gazing up at the new ship with interest.

"You bet we did!" Dudley grinned back. "How do you like the _Dandy Eagle?_ "

" _Dandy Eagle_?" Ezra asked in surprise. "We're _not_ naming it that!"

"Hey, it's _my_ ship!" Dudley shot back. "So, _I_ get to name it!"

"The _Firebolt_ isn't _your_ ship," Harry retorted in annoyance. "If it's anyone's, it's _mine_. _I'm_ the pilot!"

"The ship belongs to the _whole crew_ ," Sabine interrupted, her tone and expression brokering no further argument. "And we'll decide on a name _later_. Hera? What's going on here?"

"Our latest client was just about to pay us for a job well done," Hera stated bluntly as she turned towards Calrissian who had been watching their interaction in silence with obvious interest. "Isn't that right, Lando?"

"Normally, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly, my dear friends," Calrissian stated, holding his hands in a slightly defensive and placating manner. "Goodness knows you've more than earned it. But I'm afraid that one of your young friends here just cost me a very _expensive_ speeder." He gestured towards the smoldering wreckage of the speeder as if to justify his claim. In doing so, he noticed Harry sending Dudley a very dark look as he clearly guessed what was about to happen. "That being the case, it strikes me as only fair that I deduct that cost from the promised payment. Wouldn't you agree?"

Groaning in annoyance and having had his fill of Calrissian's silver tongue, Kanan turned and beckoned the boys to follow him as he turned to go and investigate the new ship. Harry, Dudley, Ezra, Zeb, and even Sabine turned to accompany their leader back to the ship with clear interest. That just left Calrissian standing with Hera and C1-10P, who was just now returning from where he'd been hiding in the _Ghost_.

"I'm tired of your games, Lando," Hera said in an angry but resigned voice. "You weren't planning on paying us for this job because you didn't have the credits to begin with!"

Calrissian sent her another of his annoyingly charming grins. "I could always pay you later, after my operation here finally gets moving."

"You mean _if_ you find what you're looking, _and_ after you've mined and smuggled it off-world?" Hera asked pointedly, clearly not believing he could accomplish those tasks at a reasonable price and still have some credits leftover to pay them.

"I'll give you back your droid," Calrissian offered, gesturing towards C1-10P, who promptly started warbling and grunting in eagerness.

"That won't satisfy your debt to _me_ ," Hera snapped, referencing when Calrissian had tried to sell her to Azmorigan earlier. "Not after what you pulled!"

"Well, how about we settle it with a little game of sabaac?" he offered, a not-so-subtle grin crossing his face, knowing that she was no gambler and that he could easily beat her.

Sadly, for him, she also knew what he was playing at. "Then you'll just have to owe me one!"

Without another word, she marched past him back to the _Ghost_ so she could begin the preflight preparations, wanting to leave this conman and all his baggage behind as quickly as possible. She could vaguely hear Calrissian bidding C1-10P farewell behind her as she stormed up the ramp and climbed up into the cockpit above. Pulling out her comlink, she opened the channel to Kanan's com and said, "Let's go, guys. Follow me back to Jalath. I'm interested in hearing all about your adventures while we fly."

" _No problem, Hera!_ " Dudley answered. " _Though do you think the_ _ **Ghost**_ _can keep up with the_ _ **Dandy Eagle**_ _?_ "

" _ **WE'RE NOT CALLING IT THAT!**_ " several voices shouted at Dudley in clear annoyance and anger.

Despite her rather bad mood, Hera found herself chuckling quietly as she listened to her family get into another one of their comical arguments with Dudley again. Truly, it was good to be back among friends again.

* * *

( **Author's Note** ) Wow, I'd forgotten just how much fun this story was. I apologize for the long delay, but I had posted the last chapter when my muse was reaching an all-time low and I needed time to regain it again. Thank to my newest beta-reader and brainstormer, **Kneazle** , I was inspired to take up this story. So, this chapter is very much in her honor! Thank you for the help, my friend! And once I ironed out some of my ideas and started writing this chapter again, the chapter just shot off the pages! Hopefully now that I seem to have my muse back, I can continue to post new chapters in the coming weeks and months!

In case anyone's curious, the new ship that the Rebels have gained is an XS Stock Light freighter, popularized by 'The Old Republic' MMO trailer. And before everyone starts yelling at me about how that ship design is 3,000+ years old and of an obsolete make, I will direct your attention to a certain Onderon rebel named _Lux Bonteri_ , who had owned one during the Clone Wars. So, _yes_ , they are still around, just _very rare_.


	5. Little Projects and New Training

**.**

 **The New Rebels  
** By: Tellemicus Sundance  
 _#05: Little Projects and New Training_

 **July 10, 3273 LY**  
 **Early morning  
** _ **Wraith**_ **, cargo hold**

The steady thrum of the engines sent a faint vibration through the floor panels and wall. So faint that it was barely noticeable. But because he was seated in the cargo bay, the noise wasn't even able to reach him. Instead, it was the sensation of movement that drew his attention more than anything. The feeling that the ship was moving in a spinning manner as it hovered a few meters in the air on its repulsorlifts. If he concentrated too hard on it, Dudley was sure that he'd get motion sickness from the sensation. Thankfully for his pride, he was much more enraptured by the project that was laid out before him on the makeshift workbench that he'd built into this section of the cargo bay wall.

Lying on the bench before him were two weapons that he'd found in the captain's quarters while they'd been searching and cleaning the ship of its previous nefarious owners' effects. One such weapon was a beaten and battered electrostaff, one he recognized from the Clone Wars TV show. The other weapon was an old DC-15A blaster from the Clone Wars as well. However out of date these weapons seemed to be, to Dudley they could be the start of a new weapon idea he'd conceived in a dream last night.

With a hissing noise, the door to the cargo bay whisked open and a familiar scent wafted inside. Hard as it was to believe, Dudley had found that Ezra had been correct those weeks ago when he claimed that a person really could become used to it. Most assuredly not like it, but used to it enough that you no longer gagged on reflex when the large Lasat passed by. Of course, if you stuck in tight spaces with him for too long, it was another matter entirely.

"Alright, I'm here, kid," Zeb said, sounding both curious and annoyed at the same time. "What's so important that you interrupted my fun time? You _do_ know what Kanan's making those Loth-rats do right now, right?"

"Yup," Dudley acknowledged, grinning at Zeb's pouting.

As if to accentuate his point, a thudding skid and a faint cry of pain could be heard through the hull's ceiling as either Harry or Ezra landed upon it unsteadily and lost their footing. Today, the two Jedi Padawans were learning how to augment their physical strength and speed with the Force. And to heighten the difficulty a bit, Kanan had made a little game of having them jump between the two hovering and slowly moving starships. Sabine, Chopper, and Zeb had seen what they were doing and had decided to 'help out' by taking potshots at them with stunbolts to 'simulate combat conditions' and for their own amusements.

So, knowing just what kind of fun he was stealing Zeb away from, Dudley did feel a bit guilty as he beckoned the Lasat over to the workbench. "But trust me, with what I wanna do here, I think you'll forgive me since it could be a pretty interesting little project."

Looking down at the two weapons, Zeb raised his brow as he asked, "What's all this for?"

"I want to make a new weapon for myself," Dudley explained. "I want to combine these two to make something that I can use in a melee."

"Why not just use the electrostaff for that?" Zeb asked, eyeing the weapon pointedly. "And why are you asking _me_? Sabine knows a lot more about mechanics than I do."

"That she does," Dudley nodded in agreement. "But she's got her own projects to work on. Besides, what I've got in mind is something that I think you'd have more experience in than she does. As for why I don't use the electrostaff, I just don't think it'd fit me that much. It's too _big_ , too _heavy_. And I like to get in close."

"Okay, I can agree with most of that," Zeb said, nodding. "But you still haven't said what you have in mind."

Grinning, Dudley dug into his cargo pants pocket and pulled out a datapad. Powering it up, he quickly brought up his poorly-drawn illustrations of the weapon he'd dreamed of before he handed it over to Zeb for review. Unlike Harry, who only put in the minimum amount of effort needed, Dudley had thrown himself into learning and memorizing the symbols of Aurebesh so he could more easily read galactic writing. He still had trouble with it due to how new he was to it, but he was making remarkable progress nonetheless.

"Some kind of…electro-baton?" Zeb asked as he reviewed the images.

"A transformable blaster rifle that can also become an electro-baton and coated with the lightsaber-resistant materials of the electrostaff," Dudley clarified easily. "That way I can fight in close and long-range, and not have to worry about that damn Inquisitor if I get caught with him."

"A very interesting idea indeed," Zeb said, grinning slightly as he saw the merits of it. Handing the datapad back to the boy, he turned to the weapons they had available. "Okay, you've definitely gotten my attention now. Let's see what we can make of these things."

* * *

He was…dreaming. In his dream, he was a Wizard who was feeling unusually excited. Seated at the head of a grand table within his most useful but annoying underling's manor, he gazed around the table at the dozen other Wizards who were gathered here on this lovely dark night. The atmosphere was one of repressed eagerness and dark desire. Coiled lovingly around his ankles was his dearly beloved, enjoying the warmth of his body and skin as only she was allowed to feel. The source of his present and unexpected joy was the blonde Wizard he easily recognized seated nearby him.

"—convinced Fudge to send her to Hogwarts so she could usurp it from Dumbledore," the man was saying, a look of repressed satisfaction on his face. "I apologize for not informing you sooner, my Lord, but the fool has been unusually tight-lipped about this scheme of his."

"Indeed," he purred out in agreement. "Clearly, he was fearful of others learning of the full extent of his schemes and telling Dumbledore. Now that she's there, there's nothing the old fool can do about it."

"I have already informed my son to support her endeavors in whatever manner he can," the man continued. "He has assured me that he will get all of Slytherin House to aid him as well."

"See to it, Lucius," he ordered in a rather pleasant voice, for once pleased with his underling's forethought. "I want Dumbledore out of Hogwarts and away from his last remaining position of power. Also, _encourage_ Fudge to begin providing her with increasing power over the staff, faculty, and students. The woman is vile and vain, she will quickly be able to expose any and all of the supporters Dumbledore and Potter might still have remaining among them."

"It will be done, my Lord," Lucius Malfoy said, sending him a deep nod in substitute for a bow.

"Now, tell me," he said, his good mood quickly turning dark as he forced his expression into cold neutrality. "What of the boy? Has Dumbledore found Potter? Has the boy resurfaced to attend school?"

There was a long, stressful silence as the various Wizards looked amongst each other, clearly waiting for someone to say something. Just as his short span of patience was about to expire, Greengrass spoke up, "There has been no word, my Lord. Whatever has happened to him or wherever he has gone, the Potter boy continues to elude all detection. The last I have heard, Dumbledore, the Ministry, the Unspeakables, and the Goblins all could find no trace of him. It is like the boy has vanished off the face of the world, completely."

Conflicting emotions surged through him at this news. Unbridled joy that his most hated enemy was nowhere to be found. This hinted at the possibility that the boy truly had managed to get himself killed somehow. Yet also a fury so hot, it nearly caused him to slip and allow a burst of accidental magic to escape. But he clamped down on his wrath at the thought that he wouldn't be the one responsible for killing the boy at long last. No, the boy was still alive. He was sure of it. The boy was tenacious and arrogant, like his parents. He was still out there, somewhere.

Thinking logically, he guessed that the boy was somewhere far beyond the detection range of the spells that had been used to locate him. The Americas, the Far East, and even southern Africa were strong probabilities for where he could be hiding, if indeed he had struck out on his own. He wouldn't put it past the boy, he had an ambitious drive and power identical to his own. With his own triumphant rebirth and the humiliation he'd forced the boy to endure, it would make sense that he'd run off to find new magic and better instructors than what was available in Great Britain or even Wizarding Europe.

"I _want_ the boy _found_ ," he hissed out, lowly, dangerously.

"I already have the best of the Unspeakables on the case, my Lord," Lucius quickly said, trying to assuage his master's growing ire. "I believe they are presently working on some new magic or spell that will increase their Trace range substantially. It is only a matter of time."

Eyes glowing with repressed fury, he didn't speak for several long moments as he gazed around the room and at each of his underlings. Finally, he closed his eyes and took a long, slow breath, his anger slowly dissipating. "Very well. Keep me updated on the matter. Now, tell me, what progress has been made with the Giants…" Words started to get muffled, colors bled, darkness started creeping across his vision, and a burning pain in his forehead became noticeable.

Eyes opening, Harry Potter stared blankly up at the dark interior of the room he now called his own. The warmth that was seeping down his brow and into his eye told him what he already knew, that his scar was bleeding. Thankfully, the pain was already starting to leave, leaving nothing but a fresh wound and burning warmth within it.

* * *

 **Haven, Lothal  
** **July 18, 3273 LY**

It was a dark, restless surge that awoke him. At first, he wasn't entirely sure whether he'd dreamed or imagined it. He had tried to return to sleep, but it was close enough to dawn and his mind was now awake, so he found himself just lying on his bunk futilely for several long minutes, waiting for sleep to reclaim him. Sadly, it was for naught. Sighing, Kanan slid himself out of his bunk and pulled on a fresh pair of pants and boots. After quickly strapping his gun and belt on, he quietly made his way out of his cabin and toward the exit.

Stepping out into the cool night air, Kanan let out a sigh of contentment as he gazed around the landscape. They were presently hidden within a large region of rock spires and jagged canyons in the deep south of the planet, notably on the opposite side of the planet from where Capital City was located. Hidden among the spires was a small village of simple huts and small businesses, most of which were only visible because of moonlight. This place was called Haven, which he, the crew, and the inhabitants that they'd saved from Imperial oppression and persecution had built in the last few months. A small shard of paradise for people who wanted to live free. But such freedom came with a strong dose of paranoia, forcing the inhabitants to hide all sources of light during the night, which could attract Imperial gazes.

Looking over to the side, he spotted the now-familiar hulk of the _Wraith_ nestled up against the _Ghost_ 's flank, their two nearest airlocks conjoined to provide easy access between the two ships. Even in the dark of night, the new paintjob the _Wraith_ now sported was quite noticeable. When the kids had brought it home, it had been an ugly combination of black and rusty gray with a prominent cracked heart in black. But now, all of the rusted panels had been replaced or treated. Bad wiring and shoddy repairs were upgraded and the new installations had been made to bring the ship closer to the _Ghost_ in terms of combat effectiveness.

Despite all that, the part that the kids had all greatly enjoyed was watching or helping Sabine repaint it. The original black was replaced by a simple gray. Along the entire cockpit and the bow sections of the ship was a large, stylized rendition of what Sabine claimed (and Ezra supported) was a snarling orange loth-wolf. Upon the cargo compartment on the portside of the ship, there was also an even more stylized rendition of the starbird that Sabine loved to paint. She had painted that symbol in such a clever way that unless you knew what you were seeing, you wouldn't know what it was.

As he was turning to go and find a secluded spot for some early morning meditation, movement under the _Wraith_ caught his attention. Focusing on it as he moved silently towards, Kanan soon recognized the huddled form to be that of young Harry, slumped down under the _Wraith_ with his back against one of the landing struts. He was holding his head in his heads, soft trembling in his shoulders and the strong reverberations he was emitting through the Force told Kanan all he needed to know.

"Hey," he called out softly. The boy flinched slightly in surprise before he turned his gaze up towards the elder man. Moving in front of the boy, he knelt down as he gazed calmly into suspiciously red and wet eyes. "You okay, Harry?"

The boy remained silent for a moment before he shook his head and buried his face into his hands again. Knowing that the boy wasn't willing to be the first one to speak, Kanan sat down full and reached to rest a hand gently on Harry's shoulder. "You can talk to me, Harry. You know that, right? You can talk to all of us. We'll listen and help as much as we can, as much as you'll let us. You just have to open up, just a little."

Harry glanced up at him again before he let out a low sigh. "I had a…nightmare. It was about…that Dark Lord I told you about."

Sensing Harry's erratic emotions, Kanan had a good idea of what this 'nightmare' actually was. But instead, he asked, "What happened in it?"

"I saw him, speaking to his inner circle," Harry said gently, hesitantly, as though he were ready to stop talk at even the slightest sign of disbelief or negativity. "He was making plans about how to attack my school's Headmaster, the one of the few Wizards he's ever feared. He also spoke of the Minister of Magic as though he were aiding them in bringing down the Headmaster."

"…That wasn't all there was to it, was there?" Kanan probed gently.

"That's all that mattered," Harry said stiffly, hiding his face again.

The two of them were silent for a long moment, caught up in their own thoughts. Harry's mind was filled with horrible possibilities of 'what ifs' and what he'd find if he didn't get home quickly. Kanan was thinking much more logically, trying to puzzle out this mysterious Dark Lord's motives and what actions might be taken by him. Much to his great dismay, he was finding himself comparing this Dark Lord to Palpatine on a number of similarities.

"It's frustrating, isn't it?" Kanan asked rhetorically, earning Harry's attention quickly. "Knowing something's bad is going on, or about to happen to, to people you care about, but being unable to do anything to stop it." His eyes glazed over slightly as bad memories from fifteen years earlier started resurfacing from where he'd buried them. "Hearing about how people you've known and cared for like family are suddenly being hunted down or imprisoned and tortured for crimes they weren't even guilty of committing. You hear about it everywhere, but are either too far away, too weak, or too young to be able to do anything to help." Shaking the memories from his mind and forcefully returning himself back to the present, he found Harry's undivided attention focused on him. "Times like those are the absolute worst, where you realize just how weak, inexperienced, or ignorant you truly are. Where your mind will constantly conjure up horrible images and 'what if' scenarios, which only adds to the stress, anger, and fear you feel."

With obvious reluctance and some clear surprise on his expression, Harry nodded in agreement to Kanan's statement. After a moment, his expression darkened again as he lowered his gaze. "…I feel so… _useless_ … I try and try to work on your training, to learn what you have to teach me, but…I don't think I'm cut out for Jedi training anymore… Lightsaber training with Ezra and you is fun, but not Force training. But Voldemort knows far more magic than I do, so I really need something that will throw him off. Lightsabers would surprise him, but only _briefly_ … I'm sorry for wasting your time, Kanan."

"Harry, there's still so much you haven't learned and you've made remarkable progress for as little time in your training as you've already had," Kanan said reassuringly.

"I know, but…" Harry uttered, clearly still weighed down. "I keeping trying, but…"

"That's your first mistake, Harry," Kanan interrupted, earning a confused look from the boy. "There's an old Jedi saying for times like that. 'Do or do not. There is no try.'"

"…I think I've heard that somewhere before," Harry said, looking thoughtful. And it was an entirely honest expression. He had heard it from somewhere, but he didn't remember where or how, especially since he wasn't a Star Wars fanatic like Dudley. Returning his attention to Kanan, he asked, "Sorry, but what's it mean anyway?"

"Don't worry, until recently I didn't understand it fully either," the Jedi said grinning slightly. "It means that as long as you don't believe you can succeed, then you won't succeed. But if you stop doubting yourself and just do it, it will happen. It's all about the power of belief."

Seeing Harry's thoughtful look, he added, "Belief is a powerful concept, Harry. For example, I'm betting that when you first started learning how to use your magic at your school, you weren't all that good at it. And the magic you did perform, either came in chaotic bursts or substandard to the average. But once you became more comfortable with how it worked and saw some credible results, your magic probably started improving in leaps and bounds, right?" At Harry's surprised nod, he finished with, "That is the power of belief, Harry. You started out not truly believing you could succeed. But once you saw that it was possible and started believing more in yourself, things started getting better and easier for you. Do or do not. There is no try."

"I…understand…I think," Harry said, looking back down as his thoughts surged, mind racing at lightspeed.

After giving a moment for his student to think, Kanan stood up and stretched slightly, relieving tension within his muscles that had tensed up during the conversation. His movement attracted Harry's attention, who he beckoned to accompany him. "Come on, Harry. Let's get a bit of meditation in before the others start waking up." With a much more thoughtful and less anxious air about him, Harry nodded in agreement, rising to follow his master.

* * *

 **Noon**

With his hands holding steady on the controls, Harry gently guided the _Wraith_ through the air, eyes closed as he reached out into the Force, searching. Beside him, Kanan sat in the copilot seat, his attention bouncing between helping the boy pilot through the winding canyon they were in and studying his pupil as he trained.

This little exercise they were on was something that Hera had actually come up with this morning. Somehow, over the course of breakfast, Kanan had let it slip that Harry wasn't as open and trusting in the Force as he could be. Which was why the boy's sensory abilities weren't all that good. Upon hearing this, Hera had immediately come up with the idea of a little game of hide 'n seek between him and Ezra. The idle suggestion had quickly sparked an inspiration in Kanan, which was how they got here. Ezra had gone ahead, piloting the _Phantom_ as he let out small bursts of his Force presence at random times and places, while Kanan stayed with Harry to help coach him.

Sensing his student starting to withdraw, Kanan spoke up, "You're doing it again, Harry. You're closing yourself to the Force again. You have to be open, trusting. Have faith that it'll lead you right."

Opening his eyes in annoyance, Harry shot the man a slight glare, "Hey, I bet even you had trouble with this when you were younger! Get off my back!"

Quirking an eyebrow at the boy's temper, Kanan didn't answer, just letting the boy fume in silence for a few moments before he returned his attention back to flying. "You're impatient and hot-tempered today. Relax, calm down. You won't make a meaningful connection if you keep your anger and fear bottled up like that."

"I know!" the boy growled out. "I know! I'm just…" he stalled for a moment as he guided the _Wraith_ slowly around a sharp corner. Breathing a heavy sigh, he continued, "I'm sorry. That dream I had…That nightmare, it's just bugging me all day. I can't stop thinking about it."

"Well, I can't do anything about that," Kanan admitted softly, frowning. "But I strongly recommend you learn to keep yourself focused in the present, here and now. Because, in case you haven't noticed, there's a dead end ahead of us."

Blinking, Harry looked up and frantically pulled back on the controls, pulling the _Wraith_ into a sharp climb. While he managed to avoid crashing into the cliff, the entire ship shuddered as the lower engines armor scraped the passing rocks. After gaining some altitude, Harry leveled out and brought the ship into a hover.

Seeing Harry struggling to get his emotions under control again, Kanan reached and flicked on the comm. "Ezra, rendezvous with us. We're gonna take a short break."

" _Sure thing, Master_ ," Ezra drawled out, sounding a little put-out. He'd been enjoying himself a fair bit during this exercise, leading Harry in circles and into a bunch of dead-ends.

* * *

 **Near Kothar, Lothal  
July 21, 3273 LY**

"One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six!" Kanan barked, accenting each word with a strike of his blade.

Ezra backpedaled as he followed the kata, blocking each of his master's strikes with some difficulty. No matter how much training he's been put through, Ezra just couldn't quite get over the strange feel of the lightsaber blades pulling each other towards itself. To pull his blade away required almost as much strength as the amount needed to swing it in the first place. Needless to say, after only a few minutes of these exercises, his arms were already burning, and he was panting from exertion. His only consolation was that he was apparently doing a better job at this then his fellow student.

Off to the side, Harry was undergoing the same exercise with Dudley for a partner. The only real difference there was that instead of a lightsaber, Dudley was wielding that bizarre new transforming baton-rifle of his. With the lightsaber-resistant metals and electrical discharges it could emit on contact, the baton-rifle was proving itself to be a formidable weapon indeed. As was demonstrated yet again when Dudley managed to power through Harry's failing defenses and strike him with the conductor vanes. Harry let out a pained cry as he was repelled backwards from the near-explosive discharge.

His fall was accompanied by raucous laughter from Zeb and C1-10P who were standing in the shade of the _Ghost_ , watching the training session from a safe distance. "That's it, boy! Use your _body_ to block the hits! Bwahahahaha!"

Harry sent the large Lasat an angry glare, which was went completely ignored. Climbing to his feet, Harry shifted his glare back to his smirking cousin. He could already guess just how much Dudley was enjoying this. Being able to use his newly-built weapon to beat down on Harry, which he would no doubt brag about for months (if not _years_ ) to come.

"What's the matter, Harry?" Dudley asked in an almost innocent voice, though his grin did not waver in the least. "Is the ZD-1 too much for you handle?"

Growling angrily, Harry hefted up and twirled his lightsaber for a moment before igniting the second blade. Seeing the obvious seriousness of Harry's unspoken challenge, Dudley hefted up the ZD-1 in a defensive posture as he prepared to receive the assault. He certainly didn't have to wait long as Harry immediately charged forward, twirling and spinning the saberstaff in a blue of energy to try and confuse Dudley. However, Dudley managed to block one of the blades, which brought his speedy assault to a halt.

Pressing forward with all his strength, Harry tried to overpower Dudley. But Dudley had always been larger and stronger than him, which he now used to his advantage here. Pushing back, he forced Harry backward, with Harry digging slight trails in the dirt under his boots as he tried to fight back.

Frowning at what he was seeing, Zeb crossed his arms as he called out, "You've got two blades, Harry! Use them!"

But Harry ignored the Lasat, finally backing away and swinging his saberstaff towards Dudley. Dudley had been caught by momentary surprise at Harry's fast retreat, stumbling forward awkwardly and just barely fumbling to get his weapon up in defense. Though he managed to block the saber blade, the same blow knocked his weapon to the side and had him stumbling backwards in retreat. Unwilling to let his cousin get away, Harry pressed forward, swinging and hammering at Dudley's weapon, constantly knocking it aside as he sought to create an opening long enough for him to deliver a decisive strike.

"Two blades, Harry!" Zeb was yelling angrily. "Do you even know how to use them?!"

Again, Harry ignored Zeb as he finally managed to knock Dudley completely off his feet. Stalking forward, Harry brought his saberstaff up to deal the final blow. But the split second before he could, Dudley managed to roll onto his side closest to Harry, bringing the ZD-1 up into a jab. Yet again, the electrical baton repelled him, sending jolts and sparks through his body as he came to a skidding halt at Zeb's feet as his saberstaff deactivated and rolled from his hands.

"This wouldn't have happened if you'd listened to me, boy!" Zeb growled, glaring down at him with obvious disappointment.

"What would you know about training or fighting with lightsabers?" Harry demanded challengingly, as he rolled over and pushed himself back to his feet.

"I don't need to know about lightsabers to know how to fight with staff weapons," Zeb rebuked, grabbing his bo-rifle and extending it into its staff configuration.

"That's a great idea, Zeb!" Kanan called, earning the trio's attention. Kanan and Ezra both stood to the side, their lightsabers down, having clearly witnessed a large portion of the impromptu fight between the cousins.

"What is, Kanan?" Zeb asked as he retracted and holstered his bo-rifle.

"Why don't you give Harry here some lessons in staff fighting?" Kanan clarified, earning surprised gazes from everyone. "I don't know anything beyond the mere basics and Harry's going to need all the help he can get to learn how to master that weapon."

"What?! Are you serious, Kanan?!" Zeb immediately complained. While he didn't necessarily have a problem with Harry, he certainly hadn't gone out of his way to get close to the boy just yet. The boy was just too quiet and closed off, a lot like Sabine in that regard. And if the boy's budding temper was anything to go on, teaching him proper bo-staff techniques would be as fun as scrubbing carbon waste from the ships' engines! "Teaching this little pipsqueak will be like trying to disarm a mine!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, quirking an eyebrow dangerously at Zeb.

"See what I mean?!" Zeb said, gesturing towards him meaningfully, which only increased the glare Harry was giving him.

"Then you best hope he's a fast learner, Zeb," Kanan said seriously. "Because we can't afford to have any of us have such obvious weaknesses like that to be exploited while on a mission. So, best get to it. Dudley, I think you're training here is finished. Why don't you go see if Hera has any time to spare for some extra flying lessons?"

"Yes sir!" Dudley chirped, grinning a little perversely at the thought of spending time with Hera as he spun around and raced off to board the _Ghost_.

"You do realize what you just did to Hera, right?" Ezra asked lowly, watching Dudley run off.

"She'll handle it," Kanan said, though there was a definite note of something resembling amused pity in his voice when he did. Turning back to his student, Kanan held up his lightsaber again, earning Ezra's attention. "Let's go again, Ezra. One!"

And so, training continued.

* * *

( **Author's Note** ) It's short I know, and little more than filler at that. But this chapter turned out to be a major burden for me. The reason for this is because this was the last chance I had to introduce some new weapons, conflicts, and whatnot for the Rebels to deal with.

I wanted to show a bit of character growth and time passing. Because the next episode to take place in Rebels is essentially the end of the beginning for the show and their time on Lothal. And I didn't want to jump straight into that mess without at least trying to show how much training and experience the boys have been getting beforehand, so that they suddenly possessing new powers, weapons, and equipment wouldn't just conveniently come out of nowhere. Such as Dudley's new ZD-1 baton-rifle. I was inspired by the Z-6 riot control baton of the First Order for this one. So consider the ZD-1 as a somewhat slapped-together first attempt at creating that weapon by Zeb and Dudley.

Sadly, as you might've guessed, when I tried to create some new training scenes or character development, my mind just came to a screeching halt. This is the best I could come up with. I hope you all can at least try to enjoy and appreciate my attempts at it.

Also, for those of you who are curious, here's a list of the weapons and equipment that the boys will be using.

 **Dudley's weapons and equipment** : Clone Trooper Phase 1 helmet, ZD-1 electro-baton/blaster rifle, DL-18 blaster pistol, and a whipcord launcher gauntlet (left hand) (zipline for scaling heights or capturing prisoners)

 **Harry's weapons** : double-bladed lightsaber, DL-44 heavy blaster pistol


End file.
